Well, this takes place in Orange, Texas, just right next door to my hometown, and I never even heard about this or the history of the beautiful Shangri La there in Orange. That's about the only good thing Orange still has going for them.

First, the Lutcher, Stark, and Brown family connection: Henry Jacob Lutcher and Frances' oldest daughter, Miriam, married William Henry Stark, who would manage and take over Lutcher and Moore Lumber Company; and their youngest, Carrie Lutcher, would marry Edgar William Brown, MD, who would help oversee the company. W. H. Stark & Miriam had one girl and one boy, who we are interested in...Henry Jacob "Lutcher" Stark. He would "adopt" with his first wife, Nita: William "Bill" & Homer, twin boys. When Nita died suddenly, he married Ruby Childers. And when she died suddenly, he married Nelda Childers, Ruby's sister. And this was when the nightmare began for ol' Henry Jacob "Lutcher" Stark.

It was Homer Stark’s daughter, Rebecca Stark Nugent, portrayed as “Rachael” in the story, who was researching trying to find out more about her father's birth parents when the investigation led into her grandfather's (Lutcher Stark) death and uncovering many family secrets. She started researching within 5 months after Nelda's death. Little did she know she would be involved in this journey and open up pandora’s box for a draining, living hell for the next 10 years. She went through a storage unit filled from top to bottom full of the family's estate records dating back to early 1900s, spending endless hours scouring through the 400,000 papers and talking with people who were in the know…but afraid. This is her story, under the alias of Frank Mills. She can be followed on Facebook: If the Devil Had a Wife, and provides many old photos, stories and bits of history in and around Orange, Texas. At the end of the book, you’ll find photocopies of some important documents that backup the facts she presents in the book, and in the middle of the book some great photos of the Lutcher, Stark and Brown families.

Published in 2009, I’m not sure if it continues, but the Board Members of the Stark Foundation refused to allow any stores in Orange to sell this book due to its incriminating evidence, I’m sure, against the Stark Foundation and a few of the local people. And because of this book, volunteers at the local Shangri La, the Stark Museum of Art, and the Lutcher Theater, were told she was NOT allowed to enter the doors. Wow!!! Here it is 2019, I sure hope, by now, there’s a whole new honest-to-goodness group of Board Members running Orange.

You will be shocked, and saddened, at what she uncovers! ( )

Excellent read from beginning to end. It had me on pins and needles but mostly in shock, having grown up in nearby Hardin County I had never heard of any of this and was amazed to read about all that happened just a few miles down th road. ( )

This book had my interest from the start, not only because I grew up in Orange, TX, knew many of the Stark family, knew children of people who worked for Nelda, and have family who had married into the legendary family but also because the rumors I grew up with seemed too far fetched to be in any way a portion of truth. But this book cemented the talk most took as gossip to be the truth. The book paints a picture that is heartbrokenly true. I knew Ida Marie (the circumstances of her death could be a book within itself), Lin, Randy, Bill (the twin Bill's family) and some of Homer's grand children. To know their lives were tainted by such actions as described in this book allows one to see them all in a different light.

The book kept my interest, but the writing was a bit mundane; and sequences of events were not clarified. Sometimes the story became confusing as to when things took place - the timeline given in the book was great, but didn't include Rachel's timeline of discoveries. One glaring question that remains - Rebecca Nugent wrote the book under her father's birth name. Rebecca's father was the twin, Homer. It is indicated that a call to VIrginia's Bureau of Statistics and records confirmed birth records of Frank Mills and his twin brother - how did she know this in the first place.

Although a true story, it reads like a modern day thriller. The book clarifies some rumors while at the same time opens some new questions to wonder about. All in all, I applaud the author for putting her and her family's personal sorrow on paper for the world to see and hope the family legacy will become a positive influence on the world again. Kudos Stark Family - you deserve it! ( )