"It will get worse before it gets better," I heard the full-bosomed tarot card reader tell my husband, who was being investigated for raping one of his drum line students. Two weeks later, my husband of 11 years was officially charged with forcing himself on his student, and the crime was reported in detail in the newspaper. I wanted to categorize the whole mess as a foolish choice made by my husband. What I simply could not absorb -- even when it was presented to me in the black and white of a dispassionate newspaper story -- was the impact of his sexual encounter with a high school senior in my home while I was out of town. The fortune teller was right. It got worse. And the "better" was nowhere in sight. *** Author Monica Lee explores themes of fidelity, faith and justice in "The Percussionist's Wife: A Memoir of Sex, Crime & Betrayal," the true story about the demise of a marriage after revelations of adultery and criminal sexual conduct. In a perverse age when politicians hide children bred by their mistresses and coaches prey upon their charges, "The Percussionist's Wife" is a modern parable on the nature of betrayal and atonement for those who have endured the shame and mystery of unspeakable secrets. Monica Lee, a former journalist and writer, draws on her skills as a daily newspaper reporter and relies on the police evidence file to recreate her husband's ongoing philandering with his students throughout their marriage and to illustrate how she coped -- or didn't -- with the criminal charges against him.

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