BOOKS
BALM OF ANGELS
An old Irish proverb says: “Forgiveness is the balm of angels.” Playwright Oliver Courtland and his director son, Rye, have been living together on the Upper West Side of Manhattan for years since his wife and Rye’s mother, actress Lydia Hammond, left them decades before and returned to her native England. Lydia subsequently married Oliver’s former writing partner, Alvin Spiegel. For the first time, Oliver and Rye together are working on a new Broadway production. Having great difficulty casting the female lead, neither dares suggest the perfect choice — Lydia — a name neither has spoken aloud in 45 years.
HOLLYWOOD RAJ
THE RADFORD SAGA
In 1938, British talent ruled Hollywood, earning the nickname “Hollywood Raj”. Sir Osmond Radford, a 50-year-old theatrical knight and former flying ace, felt adrift despite his successful radio show. He yearned to play Sherlock Holmes in the upcoming Twentieth Century Fox production, unaware that the British Secret Service had other plans for him. Recruited by his former comrade, Richard Ives-Curtis, Radford was tasked with spying on Nazi sympathizers in Los Angeles. His new career was complicated by his family, including an interior decorator wif, a Nazi-sympathizer son and a daughter vying for Scarlett O’Hara. Little did he know, his life was about to become a real-life thriller, filled with gangsters and Hollywood luminaries!
SHAR – LI
In 1870 Shanghai, orphaned 15-year-old Charlotte Stewart—renamed Shar-Li—uncovers a dark conspiracy behind her parents’ murder. Raised by pirates and trained in martial arts, she returns years later as a glamorous widow, determined to avenge their deaths and unravel the sinister plots of powerful enemies, including a ruthless Manchu prince and the tai-pan who ordered their assassination. Torn between love and vengeance, Shar-Li’s quest for justice will shake Shanghai’s elite in a saga of betrayal, loyalty, and epic revenge.
The Dealmakers
Step into 1980s Beverly Hills, where there’s no internet, cell phones, or Wi-Fi—just cutthroat dealmakers. Matthew Garber, a naïve Midwesterner, lands in Hollywood expecting a glamorous job, only to be thrown into the chaos of a talent agency’s mailroom. Here, he meets ruthless power players: a seductive “baby barracuda,” a psychotic ex-Green Beret, and a mysterious Englishman. Navigating a web of ambition, sex, and betrayal, Garber must fight to survive in the brutal world of Hollywood dealmakers.
Bonfire
Alan Farrell, born Albert Farberman, rises from a tough Lower East Side childhood to become a Hollywood legend in the 1940s. From his days as a prizefighter to navigating the glitzy, turbulent world of movie stardom, Farrell’s life is marked by passion, scandal, and political upheaval. As his troubled marriage crumbles, he becomes entangled in affairs and targeted by the House Un-American Activities Committee. BONFIRE is a sweeping saga of fame, betrayal, and survival in a polarized America.
The Next To Last Train Ride
Con man Michael Rangeloff is given 24 hours to leave California, and his escape plan is desperate—posing as a military escort transporting a “fallen war hero” across the country. With a stolen sergeant’s uniform, a coffin draped in an American flag, and a town expecting their martyred son, Rangeloff’s web of lies spirals out of control. As the whole nation rallies behind his fictional tale, he races to stay ahead of the truth in this darkly comedic, high-stakes adventure.
Stoned Cold Soldier
At the height of the Vietnam war, an army platoon vanishes mysteriously outside of Saigon. To add to the mystery, a Quonset hut appears outside the military base with unconfirmed rumors that the platoon is quarantined inside. Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent David Maxwell suspects a cover-up. This is confirmed when Maxwell’s potential witnesses keep disappearing. Can the correspondent solve the mystery before he disappears as well?
The Magiker
Harris Strider, a psychiatrist in New York City, treats a socialite whose body seems to be inhabited by the soul of a young Jewish girl who died a hundred years ago in Russia’s Pale of Settlement. Strider falls in love with the young girl and – in an attempt to set her free – plunges headlong into a dangerous world of mysticism, Kabbalah, and a mysterious figure known as the Magiker Rebbe. The Magiker will make you think twice about the possibilities of reincarnation and a love beyond time. Little wonder that Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey, calls The Magiker, “a brilliantly researched and wonderful read, especially if you’re a romantic.”
