After a whirlwind wedding in Mexico, Quinn Durand follows her military husband to Türkiye. With dreams of a new life outside the U.S. and no family left to hold her, she closes her law practice, sells her condo, and bids her former life goodbye. Landing in Izmir and expecting to see her handsome, gregarious Harris waiting on the tarmac, she is instead met by Air Force officers with news that her husband of two months has been killed in a helicopter accident. Running from an indictment for treason, theft, and other crimes, Harris has implicated Quinn as his partner. He left her a necklace, a tiny computer disk she cannot open, and a note telling her not to believe anything about him she is told.

Needing to know the truth, Quinn refuses to return to the States, given one week by an Air Force officer to prove her innocence or risk being hauled back to the U.S. to face her criminal charges. No longer trusting Americans, Quinn is forced to rely on her pushy Turkish landlord and a local computer hacker for help. Finding money, fake passports, and cryptic numbers from the disk, Quinn is forced to flee as Bulgarians, Turks, and Americans are desperate for what she has discovered.

From the Mediterranean and Aegean coasts of Türkiye, The Expedient Wife is the story of one woman’s dogged search for the truth, learning that in her new world of lies and half-truths, perception is never reality.

R. S. Hampton is a former attorney turned novelist, weaving suspenseful stories that unfold across a variety of landscapes—bustling cities, quiet coastal towns, and places tucked just out of sight. With a legal career spanning three decades, her characters are often lawyers, their clients, and the people entangled in their search for truth—where morality is rarely black and white, and justice doesn’t always follow the rules.

A lifelong traveler, Reta is drawn to places that spark curiosity, places with history, edge, and unexpected depth. Her stories are shaped by the settings in which they unfold, each one becoming a character in its own right. Whether it’s a courtroom in a city she once called home or a hidden alleyway in a country she’s only just begun to understand, her novels reflect the intricacies of the worlds she explores.

She and her husband split their time between multiple countries, embracing a multicultural life that mirrors the layered complexities of her fiction. When she’s not writing, she’s usually on the move—seeking out the next place, the next story, and the next unanswered question.

Apple Books or Kindle.