She arrived in apartheid South Africa on Christmas Day, eager to discover where her cello playing could take her. From the stage, she saw him for the first time. Their life together was bliss until he invited her to the family vacation home: when she knocked, his wife opened the door. But she couldn’t give up on him. He followed her back to America, where they married and lived together for twenty-two years. Then, upon his death, his daughter announced, “My parents were never divorced.”

Laurinel would discover that her husband, Klaus, was a bigamist who had bilked her of thousands of dollars, as well as the son of a Nazi murderer who fled the US amid FBI accusations of being the head of the American Gestapo.

Strings Attached reveals the author’s self-deception and the high price to be paid for denial. Far worse than the three-continent lawsuit was the shame, guilt, and anxiety over her part in this real-life drama. Though music was her anchor, she healed through various traditional and nontraditional modalities. Laurinel Owen’s story will inspire anyone who has loved, been betrayed, and is seeking recovery and support.