TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER The Bookworm Sez Advertisement

"Just wait 'til your father gets home" doesn't always work anymore.

Criminals -- no matter what their age -- know that, if caught, their transgressions will result in punishment. If you do the crime, you do the time.

But what about those left behind when someone is jailed? What about children, wives or husbands, parents and siblings who watch as a loved one is led away in handcuffs?

And what about the families formed while half a couple is behind bars?

In the new book "Visiting Life," author Bridget Kinsella examines relationships in and out of prison. She takes a hard look because she had one herself.

Divorce isn't easy on anyone, but Kinsella's was particularly bruising. The love of her life left her after a short marriage, and, months later, Kinsella still felt bereft.

Losing Alexi was only half of the hurt, though. That she never fulfilled her dream of becoming a mother was the deeper wound.

To start anew, Kinsella moved from New York to California and became a literary agent. When a teacher friend sent her a manuscript written by a thirty-something murderer, Kinsella was astounded at the beauty of the prose.

She decided to meet this man who wrote so eloquently from his concrete cell, so she made the hours-long trek to meet Rory, the man whose words captivated her. And she fell in love, not only with the writing, but also with the writer.

As the months bled into one another and visits and letters became lifelines for her and Rory, Kinsella forged friendships with several women who married men in the pen; men with whom they'd never had physical relationships and with whom they never would because they had married lifers.

How did they do it, Kinsella wondered? How did they nourish a marriage to someone behind bars?

Knowing their relationship might be only temporary, Rory also knew he was never going to be released so he asked if he could help Kinsella release her hurt.

As their romance-with-challenges flourished, Kinsella realized that Rory's love healed her heart. But how could she let him go without breaking his?

I have two words for this book: "Holy cow."

"Visiting Life" lets you glimpse inside a world you may have wondered about but didn't know who to ask. It's part romance, part true crime and part psychology with a good dose of squirmy discomfort, but that's not why I loved it.

I loved it because author Kinsella leaves you guessing right up 'til the end.

Knowing that Rory is a manipulator, how much of what he tells her is true? Should she trust him as much as she does? How deep into this love affair will she go?

The answers will leave you breathless with will-she-won't-she tension and more than a little apprehension for what happens at the brilliant ending of Kinsella's story.

Pick up a copy of "Visiting Life," wipe your calendar clean and get ready to do time with this reads-like-a-novel true story. To miss it would positively be a crime.

"Visiting Life" by Bridget Kinsella, Harmony Books, $24, 263 pages.