"Fall From Grace"
The mysterious, violent death of a prominent New England patriarch exposes a nest of dark family secrets in bestselling author Richard North Patterson’s twentieth compelling novel.
Adam Blaine arrives on the island of Martha’s Vineyard to attend the funeral of his estranged father, Ben Blaine, a famous and charismatic writer who has served as patriarch of his clan for many years.
A man fond of sailboats, good wine, and women other than his wife, Ben Blaine has left behind a string of secrets in addition to an emotionally distraught widow and his strangely aloof mistress, Carla Pacelli, a beautiful television actress who once had a drug problem.
A man fond of sailboats, good wine, and women other than his wife, Ben Blaine has left behind a string of secrets in addition to an emotionally distraught widow and his strangely aloof mistress, Carla Pacelli, a beautiful television actress who once had a drug problem.
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| Kelley House of Martha's Vineyard |
Using his training as a CIA operative, Adam skillfully seeks to obscure the evidence suggesting that a family member may have killed his father, while at the same time fighting to undo the will, which favors the enigmatic Carla. As he walks this tightrope,
Adam risks his freedom and perhaps his life, even as he unearths increasingly disturbing family secrets never meant to be discovered, and which cause him to question his understanding of his own life and everyone around him—his beloved mother, uncle, and brother and, not least, Carla.
He is a 1971 graduate of the Case Western Reserve University’s School of Law, and a recipient of that University’s President’s Award for Distinguished Alumni and its President’s Award for Excellence. He has served as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Ohio; a trial attorney for the Securities & Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco; and was the SEC’s liaison to the Watergate Special Prosecutor.
More recently, Patterson was a partner in the San Francisco office of McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen, now Bingham-McCutchen. In 1993, he retired from the practice of law to devote himself to writing.
An epic story that moves with force, passion, and authority, "Balance of Power" begins when President Kerry Kilcannon and television journalist Lara Costello at last decide to marry.
But the momentous occasion is followed by an unspeakable tragedy—a massacre of innocents by gunfire—that ignites a high-stakes game of politics and legal maneuvering in the Senate, the courtroom, and across the country, which the charismatic but untested young President is determined to win at any cost.
But in the incendiary clash over gun violence and gun rights, the cost to both Kilcannons may be even higher than he imagined.
'A must read for anyone interested in the gun debate.' Bill Clinton
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| Hotel Washington where Chris met for drinks. |
William Lasko is a self-made millionaire who’s got an eye for wealth and influence, the ear of the president, and a talent for using both to get what he wants. Now the Economic Crimes Commission wants the corrupt, untouchable Lasko brought down–and U.S. Attorney Christopher Paget is tapped to take on the job.
To gather enough evidence to nail Lasko without alienating the White House, Paget’s got to go by the book. But Lasko makes his own rules. And eliminating enemies is William Lasko’s golden one….
"Loss of Innocence"
No. 1 New York Times best-selling author Richard North Patterson, author of more than twenty novels, including Degree of Guiltand Silent Witness, returns with a sweeping family drama of dark secrets and individual awakenings.
"Loss of Innocence," the second book in the Blaine trilogy, “in one life of the 1960s, symbolizes a movement that keeps changing all our lives” (Gloria Steinem) in “a richly-layered look at the loss of innocence not only among his characters but that which America lost as a nation." (Martha’s Vineyard Times) “An extraordinary novel—profound, emotionally involving and totally addictive,” said actor and author Stephen Fry, “this may be Richard North Patterson’s best work.”
America is in a state of turbulence, engulfed in civil unrest and uncertainty. Yet for Whitney Dane- spending the summer of her 22nd year on Martha’s Vineyard -- life could not be safer, nor the future more certain. Educated at Wheaton, soon to be married, and the youngest daughter of the all-American Dane family, Whitney has everything she has ever wanted, and is everything her all-powerful and doting father, Charles Dane, wants her to be.
But the Vineyard’s still waters are disturbed by the appearance of Benjamin Blaine. An underprivileged, yet fiercely ambitious and charismatic figure, Blaine is a force of nature neither Whitney nor her family could have prepared for.
As Ben’s presence begins to awaken independence within Whitney, it also brings deep-rooted family tensions to a dangerous head. And soon Whitney’s set-in-stone future becomes far from satisfactory, and her picture-perfect family far from pretty.
An acknowledged master of the courtroom thriller, Patterson’s Blaine trilogy, a bold and surprising departure from his past novels, is a complex family drama pulsing with the tumult of the time and “dripping with summer diversions, youthful passion and ideals, class tensions, and familial disruptions.” (Library Journal)
"Dark Lady"
Once the prosecutor was a young law student. Once the dead man was an honest lawyer. Now Stella Marz stares at the body of her former lover, hanging from a doorway in a gruesome tableau.
For Stella Marz, the search for Jack Novak’s killer leads into another bizarre homicide case, back through her own past and through the city where she was born and where now—a good Catholic girl turned career woman—she is in crisis.
Somewhere in this city a hidden alliance of big money, big plans, and dark secrets is fueling a great American revival. And somehow Stella Marz will bring the darkness into the light—no matter what it reveals, no matter who it destroys. . . .
