JILLY COOPER'S outrageous new novel is a riotous story of life behind the television screen. It marks the return of Rupert Campbell-Black, the unscrupulous hero of RIDERS, and explores the machinations and pleasures of the very rich, from the agonies of obession to the passions and betrayal of men and women used to getting what they want.
They called her Appassionata, though her real name was Abigail Rosen. She was the sexiest, most flamboyant violinist on the music scene, adored by her fans and lusted after by men. She was also lonely and exploited. When a dramatic suicide attempt destroys her violin career, she sets out to conquer the conductors rostrum. Abigail is given the chance to take over the Rutminster Symphony Orchestra. Abby is ecstatic, not knowing that the RSO is up to its ears in debt, and is composed of the randiest group of musicians ever to bow a violin. Doing her best to pull this rabble into something resembling a real orchestra is going to take all she's got, as is resisting the encroachments of Viking, the fatally glamorous French horn player. Sexy Cooper silliness at its most delightfully entertaining.
His reasons for doing so are purely financial, but he is encouraged by the opportunities the scheme gives him for frequent meetings with Janna Curtis, the dynamic new head of Larks, who has been drafted in to save what is a fast- sinking school from closure.
No picture ever came more beautiful than Raphael's Pandora. Discovered by a dashing young lieutenant in 1944, she had cast her spell over the Belvedon family for 50 years. Hanging in a turret of their lovely Cotswold house, Pandora witnessed Raymond's wife Galena both entertaining a string of lovers and giving birth to her four children. During a firework party, the painting was stolen, and the hunt to retrieve it takes the reader on a thrilling journey to Vienna, Geneva, Paris, New York, and London.