Iris Thorne 2. Barbie Stringfellow, found strangled in an expensive Las Palmas hotel clad in a purple satin negligee, had left life as flamboyantly is she had lived it. And minus the little finger of her left hand. Iris Thorne, broker in a top L.A. financial firm, knew Barbie as an entertaining yet not always comfortable experience. She had been an audience to Barbie's wooing of any man - and sometimes woman - who took her fancy, including Iris's handsome colleague and potential business rival Arturo Silva. But although Iris begins to suspect that the millionairess may not have been all that she seemed, she has no idea of the stranglehold the woman can exert, even from beyond the grave.