Tough, beautiful and independent, Julia Mallet feels her life is nearly perfect. She holds a high-profile executive position in an important advertising firm. She is raising a beautiful little daughter, Emily, without the inconvenience of a husband. And she has six old and dear friends who are closer to her than family. And now "The Madison Seven" have come together once again to celebrate her thirty-fifth birthday - to eat, to drink...and to bring back a past that should have been left dead and forgotten. Because a maniac has left a calling card behind that only Julia Mallet can read: the result of a post-hypnotic suggestion inadvertently lodged in six subconscious minds...the dark residue of a harmless party game gone terribly wrong. And now she knows without a question that one of her six dearest friends is a murderer...who will be coming after Julia next.
Margaret and Charles Lewin adopted Isaiah as a newborn - giving the boy all the love a child could want, and everything money can buy. But can even the most loving, caring white family be responsible for raising a black child? Selma Richards is the boy's natural mother. At his birth, she was illiterate, unemployed, and a crack addict. Giving up her son was the best thing for both of them - at the time. Selma is now off drugs, learning to read and has a responsible job. She's not rich, and doesn't live in the best neighborhood, but she's healed herself. And now she wants her son back. Seth Margolis raises a complex and emotional moral question while giving the listener an understanding of the pain and conflict that leads up to the inevitable heartrending conclusion in which one mother ends up losing her son.
When Peggy Gimmel decides to sell the apartment she bought decades ago for a few thousand dollars, she's thrilled to discover that it's worth almost $2 million. But her sudden windfall triggers a cascade of unexpected events and plunges her into the dizzying orbit of Lucinda Wells, one of Manhattan's most successful and ruthless real-estate agents. Peggy's not the only one at Lucinda's mercy. There's also the technology entrepreneur struggling to salvage his sinking company while gut-renovating his home. The socialite exiled from Park Avenue to the pullout sofa of her parents' West Side apartment. The illegal immigrant amassing a fortune printing money. The clueless widow trying to unload a world-class collection of fake artwork. These are just some of the characters whose lives intersect in unlikely ways, all of them nearly overwhelmed by the rocketing real-estate market and the hard-charging broker who holds the key to their futures.
As he interweaves these often suspenseful and frequently comical stories, Margolis captures the zeitgeist of a cultural moment, keeping us listening with the rise and fall of his characters' fortunes.
