The gun-totting Hollywood film director, Lucky Santangelo, daughter of a Mafia gangster, shoots a psychopath threatening her third husband, Lennie. At the same time she agrees to raise Lennie's illegitimate son, the fruit of a one-night stand in Sicily. By the author of Vendetta.
Severity reflects intensity, not value — “central theme” means a warning is a core part of the book, not that the book is bad.