First published 1995
Noelle Page grows up poor in Paris and learns early that beauty is currency. When an American airman named Larry Douglas takes what she offers and disappears, she does not forget him. She builds herself into a celebrated actress, beds a Greek shipping billionaire named Constantin Demiris, and waits. Larry, meanwhile, marries a woman named Catherine and drifts through postwar life on charm and good looks, unaware that the woman he left behind now moves in circles that can destroy him. Demiris is a man who collects debts the way other men collect art. He controls people, discards them, and watches. When Noelle's obsession and Demiris's appetite for control converge on Larry and Catherine, the four of them are locked into a machinery that grinds toward a violent outcome. The story moves between Paris, Washington, Hollywood, and the Greek islands. It is about what people do when they want something badly enough and find they have nothing left to lose. Sheldon keeps the tension coiled tight and the settings glamorous, but the emotional core is simple: a woman was wronged, and she spent her life making sure it mattered.
Genres: fiction, drama, romance, adult-fiction, thriller
Vibes: dark, emotionally-intense, fast-paced, glamorous, suspenseful
Tropes: obsessive-love, powerful-antagonist, revenge-plot, second-chance-encounter
Setting: Paris, Washington, Hollywood, Greek Islands
Period: Postwar Period, 20th Century
598 pages · Paperback · Warner Books
Content warnings: sexual-content, violence