Amos Posner has a lovely house in the upscale Hamptons beach community of eastern Long Island. But recent events in Amos’s life are preventing him form enjoying it. His employer, an international trading firm, fired him after making him the scapegoat for some shady business deals. His wife, a highly successful Manhattan lawyer, has not taken kindly to his job situation, and their marriage is under considerable stress. Amos is spending most of his time at the beach house, alone, and not at all happy. So he is highly vulnerable when a beautiful woman approaches him on a bus – the Hampton Jitney – from Manhattan to the Hamptons and persuades him to show her around the area on her day off from her job as a psychiatric resident at a Manhattan hospital. When Amos reluctantly agrees, he gets far more than an ego boost. He gets a nightmare beyond imagination. And the cascading events could cost him more than the loss of his job and his wife. They could cost him his life.ReviewNail-biting tension as an innocent man digs himself an ever deeper hole in the murder of a sexy Hamptons visitor. I may never park at Montauk's scenic overlook again!'- Helen Simonson, New York Times best-selling author of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand"Retzky and Dostoyevsky -- what? Both have used the power and fascination of murder. But murder turned inside-out. Retzky's is a study of guilt, of small panicked mistakes that lead to more innocent death. And the fact that it all happens in the off-season Hamptons? Delicious."- Clark Blaise, author of The Meagre Tarmac and Southern Stories"VANISHED IN THE DUNES is an exquisitely crafted mystery that keeps the reader guessing until the very last page. Allan Retzy's characters inhabit the upper echelons of Hamptons society, but below the smooth, calm surface of their privileged lives, nothing is what it seems. On a chilly morning in May, Amos Posner's day begins with a quiet ride home to Amagansett on the Hampton Jitney -- but ends in unexpected catastrophe. His actions set in motion a chain of events that will forever alter his life and his perceptions of human nature and its deep-rooted folly. A masterful, exciting debut!"- Kaylie Jones Author of A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries and Lies My Mother Never Told Me About the AuthorIn his debut novel, Vanished in the Dunes, Allan Retzky draws on his technical and business background and his extensive international experience with multiple cultures to explore flaws that lead his characters into tense, terror-filled situations. Views: 12
Curves for Sheikhs Series Book 9 Views: 12
Men will want you like they want a glass of rum...One man will love you. But you won't love him. You will destroy his life. The one you love will break your heart in two.So says the soothsayer, when predicting young Celia's future. Raised in the tropics of Tobago by an aunt she loves and an uncle she fears, Celia has never felt that she belonged. When her uncle--a man the neighbors call Allah because he thinks himself mightier than God--does something unforgivable, Celia escapes to the bustling capital city.There she quickly embraces her burgeoning independence, but her search for a place to call home is soon complicated by an affectionate friendship with William, a thoughtful gardener, and a strong sexual tension with her employer. All too quickly, Celia finds herself fulfilling the soothsayer's predictions and living a life of tangled desperation--trapped between the man who offers her passion and the one who offers his heart.From the Trade... Views: 12
In Danielle Steel's thrilling new novel, a renowned film director confronts
an act of unimaginable treachery - and the first devastating blow will not be
the last.BETRAYALAt thirty-nine, Tallie
Jones is a Hollywood legend. Her work as a film director is her passion and the
center of her life; one after another, her award-winning productions achieve the
rare combination of critical and commercial success. With no interest in the
perks of her profession or the glitz and glamour of Los Angeles, Tallie
maintains close and loving relationships with her college-age daughter and her
aging father, and has a happy collaboration with Hunter Lloyd, her respected
producing partner, confidant, and live-in lover. Rounding out the circle and
making it all work is Brigitte Parker, Tallie's devoted personal assistant.
Friends since film school, they are a study in contrasts, with Brigitte's
polished glamour balancing Tallie's artless natural beauty, and her
hard-driving, highly organized style a protective shield for Tallie's casual,
down-to-earth approach.As Tallie is in the midst of directing the most
ambitious film she has yet undertaken, small disturbances begin to ripple
through her well-ordered world. An outside audit reveals troubling discrepancies
in the financial records maintained by Victor Carson, Tallie's longtime, trusted
accountant. Mysterious receipts hint at activities of which she has no
knowledge. Soon it becomes clear that someone close to Tallie has been steadily
funneling away enormous amounts of her money. In the wake of an escalating
series of shattering revelations, Tallie will find herself playing the most
dangerous game of all - to trap a predator stalking her in plain
sight.In this riveting novel, Danielle Steel reveals the dark side of
fame and fortune. At the same time, she brilliantly captures a woman's will to
navigate a minefield of hurt and loss - toward a new beginning. Views: 12
Re-read this classic romance by USA Today bestselling author Carole Mortimer Diana Lamb wanted revenge! When powerful, enigmatic billionaire Reece Falcon seduced her stepmother, her father committed suicide and Diana is determined to make Reece pay for her loss... But in getting close to Reece—to better exact her revenge—successful model Diana finds herself falling for this brooding magnate's charms! Now she's engaged to her enemy, but will the wedding proceed once the truth comes out...? Originally published in 1992 Views: 12
The man behind the Italian good looks... Gorgeous Rico D'Angelo is single-handedly saving the world, one disadvantaged teen at a time. The opening of his charity café should be enough for him to finally put the regrets of his childhood behind him...but even as the ribbon is cut on opening day it's not enough. Until new hire Neen Cuthbert walks through the door and offers an unexpected blast of sunshine! She's had her fill of misguided do-gooders, but something tells her Rico is different. Neen won't let him push her away--especially now she's discovering that Rico might just need her most of all.... Views: 12
Compared by Time Out magazine to a contemporary Catcher in the Rye, Alexander Stuart's The War Zone was chosen as Best Novel of the Year for Britain's prestigious Whitbread Prize when it was first published, but was instantly stripped of the award amid controversy among the judges, due to the novel's stark and uncompromising portrayal of incest and adolescent fury, when its teenage narrator, Tom, stumbles upon a complex and intensely abusive relationship between his older sister, Jessie, and their father. The novel has been published in eight languages and was turned into a searingly emotional film directed by Oscar-nominated actor/director, Tim Roth, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and went on to win international critical acclaim and many awards. This newly revised 20th Anniversary Edition includes an Afterword by Tim Roth, explaining what drew him to this controversial and painful subject matter for his directorial debut, together with both the original British and American opening chapters of the book, and Alexander Stuart's diary of the making of the film.From Publishers WeeklyA photo of children in bomb-torn Beirut hangs in the bedroom of Tom, the adolescent narrator of this taut, gripping novel by a young British writer. The war zone of the title, however, is the seemingly tranquil village in Devon where Tom and his family have moved from London. Bored and restless, Tom at first seems a contemporary Holden Caulfield, possessed of an urge to do mischief to establish his identity. But as he relates the circumstances that transform his lifehis discovery of the incestuous relationship between his father and his older sister Jessiethe novel reveals its sinister, shocking theme. Because he and Jessie have always been close, the situation feels like a double betrayal to Tom, who also realizes that to reveal the bizarre secret to his mother, preoccupied with a new baby, will destroy them all. In electrically tense prose, Stuart succeeds in enveloping the reader in the surcharged atmosphere of sexual perversion. Although Tom's painful emotional limbo is effectively conveyed, however, Stuart's portrayal of Jessie is less successful. The young woman's cool, nervy manipulation of her father and Tom, her determination to engage in every form of sexual experience, is meant to mirror the "corrupt, repressive" society of Thatcher's England, but Jessie loses her credibility as she leads Tom into a maelstrom of depravity and violence. The denouement, containing the rationale for Jessie's behavior, is unconvincing, but until that point the reader is caught up in a riveting tale. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalThis exciting but distasteful novel is narrated by rebellious, adolescent Tom, scion of a middle-class English family who discovers that his elder sister Jessica is having sexual relations with their father. Simmering with frightening psychological tensions and perverse violence, the novel effectively captures the raw emotions of adolescence in uninhibited language. It finally fails primarily because one cannot believe in the witchlike cunning and amorality of Jessica, on which the plot hinges. And the conclusion, in which Tom ends up having sex with his sister (just like Dad) is too perverse to be satisfying. The fascination the book undoubtedly exerts is due mostly to morbid curiosity about how far the author's odd imagination will take him, and one is left wishing he had put his undoubted talents to more worthwhile use.- Bryan Aubrey, Fairfield, Ia.Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. Views: 12
The Bridges of Constantine is a poignant fresco of Algeria over the last 50 years, a searing love story and a hymn to a lost city. Khaled, a former revolutionary in the Algerian war of liberation has been in self-exile in Paris for two decades, disgusted by the corruption that now riddles the country he once fought for. He has become a celebrated painter, and at the opening of one of his exhibitions, Hayat, the daughter of his old revolutionary commander, unexpectedly reenters Khaled's life. Hayat had been just a child when he last saw her, but she has now become a seductive young novelist.Khaled is consumed with passion for her, and she comes to embody the homeland and the city he still grieves for – the city he paints over and over again in his canvases. Through Hayat, his past is breathed back into life and he at last begins to confront his feelings about Algeria. But for Hayat, as elusive as she is tender, the question of what one should yearn for is not so... Views: 12
Amazon.com ReviewWith his actor's ear for dialogue, his dead-on pacing, and his talent for social comedy, British playwright Alan Bennett (The Madness of King George) is hardly lacking in literary gifts. The three stories in The Laying On of Hands, two of which have been filmed by the BBC, are funny in different ways. The title piece is a slow-to-ripen satire set at the Anglican funeral service of a handsome young masseur, whose clients turn out to include cabinet ministers, soap opera stars, and the presiding clergyman. The second story, "Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet," describes the odd relationship a pure-minded middle-aged woman develops with her charming chiropodist (podiatrist). And the final story, "Father! Father! Burning Bright," follows a mousy schoolteacher named Midgley through the self-searching and nurse-hunting days preceding his father's death in Intensive Care. The range and subtle coloration of Bennett's humor will appeal, especially, to readers of Robertson Davies and Muriel Spark. --Regina MarlerFrom Publishers WeeklyBennett hits the mark in the title novella of this brief collection, which also features a second, shorter novella as well as a single short story. The funeral of a masseur who serviced British celebrities in a variety of ways becomes the setting for a cheeky comedy of manners in the title yarn, as a young gay priest fails his first big test when he lets the final testimonials turn into an outrageous debate over whether the masseur died of AIDS or contracted an obscure disease while traveling in South America. The punch line falls flat in the second effort, "Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet," when a woman finds a mutual outlet for her unusual sexual fetish in her ongoing appointments with her podiatrist. The final novella, "Father! Father! Burning Bright," gets off to a murky start as a married, middle-aged schoolteacher struggles to sort through his mixed emotions when a stroke leaves his father at death's door, but the ending, involving the teacher's strange attraction to his father's comely nurse, closes the narrative with a nice satiric twist. Bennett's multileveled approach makes the title story work, as he slowly layers his conceit with observations on the celebrity scene in Britain and the priest's recollections of his romantic interaction with the deceased. Unfortunately, the quality of craft drops significantly in the other two efforts, with the second novella in particular focusing more on manners than comedy.Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. Views: 12
