Helpful Score: 3
About a New York high society woman whose husband dies. Some good twists... an easy read. Only took me about 4 days to read - and i have a baby!
Helpful Score: 2
Funny book telling the tale of riches to rags of a NY socialite wife. The plot is twisting and fun to see the NY socialite survive. I enjoyed this book a lot!
Helpful Score: 1
This is a Park Avenue whodunit. The story gives a glimpse at wealthy New York society, this time in the style of a page-turning murder mystery. This is a fun read.
Helpful Score: 1
I was suprised how much I liked this book. After I got past the first chapter, I thought it was great. Fun, juicy, quick read!
I read this one twice -- it is a great story, with some historical parallels, mystery, and terrific characters.
A fun escape read.
Ruth Rendell meets Dominick Dunne in this deliciously dark and witty novel about social climbing and murder. When husband Lucius dies of a heart attack under rather sordid and suspicious circumstances, prominent New York socialite Jo Slater is shocked to learn that he has left his sizable estate, including the Southampton mansion and Fifth Avenue apartment, to a mysterious French countess. Exiled from the kingdom of money, power, and privilege, Jo struggles to rebuild her life only to find herself thwarted at every turn by the countess. From working as a Park Avenue interior decorator to selling "wholesale carpets and hotel furnishings on Lexington and 26th Street," Jo quickly slides down the social ladder until she hits rock bottom, buying a pair of Hush Puppies (on sale) for her aching feet: "Symbolizing my ugly new life of drudgery and hopelessness, those Hush Puppies were just about the most depressing purchase I had ever, ever made." Obsessed with recovering her fortune and place as queen of "le tout New York," Jo concocts an audacious scheme of fraud and murder. Can she pull it off? For sophisticated readers wanting the perfect beach read, Hitchcock's third novel (after Trick of the Eye and The Witches' Hammer) offers a bubbly cocktail of psychological suspense and social satire.
When Jo Slater, one of the grandest of New York's grande dames and great patron of the arts, befriends a young French countess, trouble begins.
This one's a nice fantasy read for those of us who wish to imagine ourselves disgustingly rich. I had to skip some of the parts where Jo keeps getting kicked down again and again and again... But of course it just makes the ending that much more satisfying.
Jo Slater, one of the grandest of New York's high society, is knocked off her pedastal when her husband of 20 years dies under strange circumstances and leaves his fortune to a mysterious French countess.