The Serpent’s Bite Preview

The Housewife Blues Preview

IF SHE hadn’t placed her great-great-grandmother’s spinet in that exact spot along the east wall and hadn’t set aside time to polish it on this particular April day, Jenny might have avoided any confrontation with this bit of unsavory information. First there was Godfrey Richardson letting himself into the main hallway, which was unusual enough, […]

The Henderson Equation Preview

Staring into the vast city room, as it subsided now from the last flurry of deadlines, Nick Gold savored a moment of comparative tranquility. Deskmen and reporters, lifting weary eyes from copy paper, might have assessed his mood as one of self-imposed hypnosis, a kind of daydreaming. News aides turned their eyes away self-consciously, as […]

The Casanova Embrace Preview

I   Covert intelligence agents and security men in the various embassies along the tree-lined street knew instinctively that it was a bomb blast that had intruded on the chilly morning calm. It was hardly an automobile’s backfire. Windows nearby were shattered. Bric-a-brac fell from shelves and tables in elegant houses innocently flung in the […]

Senator Love Preview

“NOT GARFIELD,” Fiona FitzGerald whispered, looking over Monte Pappas’ thick shoulder as they scrutinized the seating list. A sweet-faced young woman suitably festooned in the costume of a colonial dame had handed them the list along with a toothpaste-sincere smile.   The Pepsi company had pulled out all stops for this annual bash of ingratiation […]

Random Hearts Preview

IT ALL BEGAN, as Ken perceived it, with a sudden fit of precognition, and he knew instantly that the mooring lines that stabilized his life were about to show the first signs of major slippage. He had been observing this couple just coming out of the slanting April rain all aflutter and out of breath […]

New York Echoes Preview

Good Neighbors “Hi, I’m Caroline Kramer,” she said to the older woman in the elevator of their West Side apartment building. “Sandra Siegel,” the woman replied, nodding, somewhat taken aback by the introduction. She held a little white-haired dog in her arms. Caroline petted it and exclaimed how beautiful it was. “Her name is Betsy,” […]