Böcker av Steven Key Meyers

The Midhurst Lashes conflates and adapts as a screenplay the only two novels written by poet Algernon Charles Swinburne: the fragmentary Lesbia Brandon and what may be the best unreadable novel in the English language, Love's Cross-Currents. In books saturated with feeling (however perversely expressed), partly autobiographical, partly derived from De Sade and from Laclos' Les Liaisons Dangereuses, supremely subtle (and yet operatic), Swinburne creates one of Victorian literature's great characters, Helena, Lady Midhurst. Midhurst ruthlessly whips her daughter, niece, nephews and grandchildren into and out of affairs and marriages, crowning her manipulations by trying to secure-at any cost to others-the family title for her own great-grandson. Among the sufferers along the way is her grandson Redgie, who falls in love with a cousin only to find Midhurst intent on sending her away. The Midhurst Lashes tells a devastating story of control, manipulation, pain, powerlessness, helpless surrender, ecstasy and love in a haut monde of play, rivalry and score-settling. Includes Meyers's Afterword.

Celebrity kidnappings always breed rumors that the victim is complicit. In the 1934 Lucie Spode White kidnapping case, the rumors are true. Falls City''s sexy Depression belle is a high-living heiress whose husband expects her to get by on her pin money. Only 25, she won''t come into her inheritance until she turns 30! Generous-if ruthless-with her favors, when she can''t raise the cash for a room at a hot-pillow motel, Lucie enlists her handsome young lover Harry Thrall in a scheme to anticipate part of her inheritance. Just a prank. Can''t be a crime if she''s in on it, right? Though pants-on-fire Harry worries that one of them (and he knows who) will end up on Death Row while the other lives it up on Easy Street, he enters into the spirit of the thing. After all, Harry needs money if he''s going to get to Hollywood. So off they go, and in come reality and the F.B.I. Lucie finds herself trapped in a closet with a gash in her head, while G-Men dog Harry across the country. Inspired by the sensational 1934 kidnapping of heiress Alice Speed Stoll, All That Money is a fast-moving, rollicking ride.

That's My Story tells two exciting tales from the author's family history. The first-The Last Posse-is set in 1922 Texas. Sheriff Jim Groves leads a posse by automobile and horseback after the famous outlaw Frank Holloway, whose pistols have seven notches, one for every man he's killed. At the same time, Jim's father's grave is opened and his body snatched in an effort to prove the family's rights to Manhattan's notorious Edwards Estate. Narrating is Jim's 12-year-old nephew Bing, who will be tasked (in disguise) with saving the day. The second-That's My Story-takes place in Beverly Hills, California in 1935. Jim is living in a stately Holmby Hills "cottage," providing security to the Raven brothers, rich Los Angeles developers and boosters of UCLA's football team. Jim's son Shorty, the Bruins' fullback, carries the team to a start that promises the Rose Bowl, until he's called out as a ringer. Getting to the bottom of things, Jim-Bing again accompanying him and narrating-traces the commotion to Oil King Cassidy himself, chief booster of the Bruins' archrivals, the USC Trojans. Classic noir mayhem ensues. That's My Story offers a lively picture of early 20th-century American life, from the writer Kirkus Reviews calls "a masterly communicator of time and place."

"Comedy is the rock and roll of the Eighties!" proclaims Rolling Stone, and right away Rex Black-who owns New York''s hottest comedy club, the Gag Reflex-realizes the zeitgeist is going to make him rich: Records! TV! Movies! A national chain! Selling stock! And indeed it rockets Rex on a wonderful trip, along with his wife Perri, A&R Joey, club booker Ashley, club manager Conor and, as his own assistant, Conor''s partner Frank. Wall Street titan Siggy Brewster will handle the IPO. Circling them all, desperate for her break, her fin hardly breaking the water, is comedian Rosetta Stone. Fast, funny and heartfelt, Good People draws on the author''s 1980s experience working for the original Catch a Rising Star at its peak to sum up an era of triumphs and trainwrecks.

A Family Romance sweeps through more than 40 years serving up tasty-and profoundly true-takes on American life.In the first part of this family saga, we meet Nat and Viv Handler at their 1959 arrival in Washington, D.C., Viv a devoted mother and wife, Nat a journalist. When he stumbles upon the untold story of President Kennedy's womanizing, Nat sets out to report on it. But the more he tries to get the facts from the President's sexiest mistress, the more he puts his job-and his marriage-at risk.Then we make the acquaintance of Nat and Viv as students in Colorado during World War II. Viv's involved with J.T.-her handsome bad boyfriend-and Nat is stalking them. It's a scene of Swing Era dances, steamy backseats and rationed Coca-Cola, as J.T.-dragging Viv and Nat along-works steadily towards his fate.Years later, in the 1980s, we follow Viv and Nat at the height of their careers through the course of a single day. Living a busy but comfortable life in New York City, Nat's a magazine editor and Viv runs her own business. Looking forward to the future, but inescapably aware of the past, they walk to work, negotiate their offices and office mates, solve crises, go shopping, see a play. Viv rescues an old friend, while Nat inadvertently brings disaster upon a colleague. Fortunately, art reconciles everything in the end.With its wonderful characters and inspired and true-to-life action, A Family Romance is an irresistible tour de force.