Martin Talbot has recently learned that his mother was the infamous Black Stiletto in New York City during the late 1950s/early 1960s. Judy is now in a special home suffering from Alzheimer's, so she's unable to communicate with Martin about what he's found in a hidden room in the basement of her Chicago home, or about the contents of a strongbox given to him containing her most secret possessions, as well as a letter explaining her past. That's how Martin came across his mother's diaries written during the time of her reign as the Black Stiletto. The first diary shocked him, but he's in for even more fascinating revelations as he reads her second diary and watches an old reel of 8-mm film from 1959.

It seems Martin isn't the only one with a copy of the film that exposes Judy's secret identity. The son of the deceased filmmaker has found a copy in his father's lock box and decides to blackmail Martin. When his daughter Gina is viciously assaulted in New York City, Martin goes there to console her -- as well as to confront some of his mother's past. What Judy went through as a woman, as well as the Black Stiletto, during 1959 is nothing short of astounding.

This mesmerizing story of mystery and suspense unfolds in switching between the present of Martin's life and the past as told in Judy's diary. And the diary reads just like a woman of 21 would have written it in 1959. I'm hoping there's another Black Stiletto diary because I want to know more about this amazing woman.