Ballantine
May 2003
On Sale: April 29, 2003
Featuring: Genny Haviland; George Gabriel
320 pages ISBN: 0345451058 EAN: 9780345451057 Trade Size Add to Wish List
In such erotic thrillers as In Fidelity and Lip
Service, acclaimed author M. J. Rose took readers to
the darkest edges of desire. Now, in her most riveting
novel yet, she leads us across the fine line separating
passion and obsession, mercy and murder.
In a New
York courtroom, a woman stands accused of a controversial
crime. Genny Haviland, thirty-eight, is said to have
drugged and suffocated legendary painter George Gabriel.
For two decades the tempestuous Gabriel has challenged
audiences with his wild work. And in the end, the
prosecution claims, he alienated the woman he first
seduced, then enslaved—enough to cause his own death at
her hands.
Yet in Genny’s mind there rests another
story, one that started twenty years before . . . one in
which a college girl on summer break met an older,
attractive artist—and began a forbidden affair she would
never forget, a shadowy, sensual union in which she was
more helpless and more powerful than she would ever
imagine. Then the discovery of a shocking secret blew it
all apart: Genny’s father was Jonathan Haviland, the
renowned gallery owner who could make or break Gabriel’s
career.
Now Genny contends she was only easing her
old lover to a painless death, allowing him to escape the
awful illness that was slowly eroding his sanity and self.
But is that the whole truth? Or was Gabriel indeed killed—
but for far more sordid reasons, from a motive driven by
scandal and the threat of financial ruin? How much would
Genny do for the man she professed to love, or for the
father who has always loomed darkly in the background of
her life?
Peopled with complex and fascinating
characters, and capturing the essence of two different and
decadent decades, here is the most impressive achievement
of an up-and-coming author. In this irresistible novel, M.
J. Rose creates a world where love doesn’t last and fame
is fleeting . . . but desire never
ends.