The tenth romantic leviathan from Bradford (Everything to Gain,
1994, etc.), now with more than a bit of mystery thrown in. What
could have caused the suicide (or was it murder?) of world-renowned
philanthropist Sebastian Locke, head of Locke Industries? Four
narrators, intimately involved with the case, agonize and confide
in handsome places in New York, Connecticut, and
city-and-wine-country France. Vivienne, a journalist and one of
Sebastian's five former wives, had lunch with the handsome
billionaire just days before his death. Then he'd seemed sublimely
happy as he announced his plans to remarry, this time to a research
scientist in Africa. Vivienne and Sebastian's own divorce had been
amicable; she'd fallen in love with Sebastian, then her mother's
lover, when she was 12 and had married him ten years later. And
even post-divorce Vivienne still loved Sebastian, though his
children, Jack and Luciana, were obsessed at opposite poles: Jack's
early resentment of his father (Jack adored Vivienne's mother,
killed in a cellar-stairs fall) was ruining Sebastian's love life;
and Luciana, though worshiping her father, still chafed at what she
considered her minor role in Locke Industries. All are baffled and
bewildered by the death. It isn't until Vivienne, in Paris, hears
the shocking tale of dying, elderly Zoe, the Countess of Grenaille
(nee Mary Ellen Rafferty of New Jersey), that the mystery of
Sebastian's demise is solved. By end, calm and sweet reason prevail
for all the disaffected. Bradford is ill at ease in the mystery
frame: Her red herrings are whale-size, her solution enterprisingly
cuckoo - a Rube Goldberg invention. But, still, all the Bradford
stylistic pontoons - garrulous smoothies holding forth in luxurious
settings - keep this afloat for the waiting fans. (Kirkus Reviews)
A compelling story of old loves and old secrets... Sebastian, the
fifty-six-year-old patriarch of the Locke clan, is handsome,
charismatic, a man of immense charm and intelligence. He heads up
the philanthropic Locke Foundation, funded by the vast family
fortune built by his forefathers. Committed to relieving the
suffering of those in genuine need, Locke travels the globe,
personally giving away millions a year to the poor, the sick, and
the victims of natural disasters and wars. He is seen as a beacon
of light in today's darkly violent world. That is why the police
are so baffled when Sebastian is found dead in mysterious
circumstances. Has he been murdered, and if so who would want to
kill the world's greatest philanthropist? Could such an upstanding
man have enemies? Vivienne Trent, an American journalist, met Locke
as a child, married him, divorced him, but stayed close to him.
Aware that there was another side to this engimatic man, she sets
out to find the truth about his death and about Locke himself.
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