First published 2009
Gus Bailey sits in his Manhattan apartment, staring at legal papers that could destroy him. The high-society journalist faces an eleven million dollar slander lawsuit after repeating a false story about Congressman Kyle Cramden on the radio. His talent for collecting whispered secrets has finally backfired spectacularly. While battling the lawsuit, Gus struggles to complete a contracted novel about billionaire Konstantin Zacharias, who died in a suspicious fire two years earlier. The convicted killer sits in prison, but Gus believes the wrong person was punished. Too many details don't add up, especially why the paranoid billionaire dismissed his bodyguards the night he burned to death. Konstantin's widow Perla will do anything to bury the story and protect her social climbing ambitions. She stands between Gus and the truth he desperately needs. As legal pressure mounts and powerful enemies circle, Gus must navigate the treacherous world of Manhattan's elite to survive both his lawsuit and uncover what really happened that deadly night.
Genres: fiction, mystery, crime, contemporary, thriller
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Manhattan
Period: 21st-century
288 pages · Hardcover · Crown