READ MY BOOKS
Casualties of Passion (2024)
A Novel
"Casualties of Passion" is a story of relationships - relationships gone stale, relationships that never should have been, uncommon relationships that morph over time and endure, and relationships that erupt in violence. The common thread that runs through these relationships is sexual desire.
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The Last Martini(2024)
A Novel
In this provocative and emotional tale, Nicole Beaumont feels the strain of her failing marriage to Jack, a successful lawyer perpetually absent due to work. Yearning for connection, she reluctantly attends a summer pool party hosted by her best friends, Ted and Maryanne Miller. As the night unfolds, Nikki finds herself in a passionate encounter with both of them, exploring desires she has long suppressed. However, her newfound liberation is abruptly shattered when she awakens to a horrific reality: Ted and Maryanne are dead. This shocking turn sets Nikki on a tumultuous journey of self-discovery and reckoning with her own desires and the fragile nature of life and love.
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Death Above the Potomac (2024)
A Novel
We follow the life of 37-year-old Vicki Cole, a stunningly beautiful and immensely wealthy CEO of Consolidated Defense Industries, inherited from her grandfather. On January 1, 2023, after hosting a lavish party for company executives, Vicki is discovered dead in her Potomac River mansion, leaving behind a world of intrigue and ambition. The narrative then flashes back to January 1, 2022, introducing a range of characters whose lives intertwine leading up to Vicki's tragic end. As the investigation unfolds, the story explores themes of power, betrayal, and the complex relationships that define Vicki’s life, ultimately raising questions about the motives behind her untimely death.
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About the books
“The Last Martini,” “Death Above the Potomac,” and “Casualties of Passion” do not constitute a trilogy in the traditional sense. There are no common characters and no continuing story lines from one novel to the next. What they do share is a focus on troubled relationships – relationships gone stale, relationships that never should have been, uncommon relationships that morph over time and endure, and relationships that erupt in violence. The common thread that drives the dramatic changes in the lives of the characters is a quest for the sexual satisfaction they crave, which their existing relationships do not provide.
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The novels follow the intersecting paths of the people who endure and/or exit these flawed relationships, the choices they make along the way, the consequences of those choices, and the ultimate impact of their pursuit of passion on themselves and those around them. Few of the characters in these stories are paragons of virtue. Many use sex, not just as a means of self-gratification, but as a vehicle for the attainment of ulterior objectives – financial gain, professional success, upward mobility, and vengeance. Violence and death are common components of relationships in which lust combines with such ulterior motives – from the inter-marital beating and rape of a woman falsely accused of infidelity in “Casualties of Passion,” to the murder of a beautiful and rich business executive on New Year’s Eve on the first page of “Death Above the Potomac,” to the double murder of a sexually promiscuous couple that provides the springboard for “The Last Martini.” These are not stories for those who are squeamish about the varied ways that people seek and use sex (and their sexual partners) to satisfy passions that are not easily quenched. I think people think about sex a lot more than they care to admit, and I harbor the view that those folks would enjoy reading a well-written book with a fair degree of sex – of all kinds – woven into the plots.
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Although the stories are rife with sex, at their core, they deal with love -- false love, unrequited love, repressed love, unspoken love, new love, violent love, and uncommon love. The central message of all three novels is a bit like the lyric from John Lennon’s “Beautiful Boy” – “Life is what happens to you while you’re making other plans.” The course you chart in life may not prove to be your ultimate destiny. Happiness and satisfaction may be waiting for you somewhere else. You have to be open to the possibility of love and happiness finding you instead of the other way around and, when it does, embracing them fully, before it’s too late.