The Midnight Partner

Investigating the alleged suicide of his best friend and partner, Phillie Liebowitz retraces Jack Murphy's last and most dangerous sexual adventure, involving a series of illicit affairs, violent crime, and a midnight liaison. 75,000 first printing.

A novel that is at once a wry, acute portrait of a contemporary good guy, a brilliant picture of suburban life, an extraordinary erotic evocation of the world of S&M sex, and a highly suspenseful plot. The narrator, Phillie, is the good guy -- and he is indeed good, as a husband, a father, a citizen, a human being with a complete set of suburban neuroses. But all that turns upside down when his lusty, pleasure-loving screenwriter partner (and oldest friend) dives headfirst off his roof deck into his empty swimming pool, and Phillie, convinced this was the last man in the world to have committed suicide, is determined to find out the truth about his death. He finds himself exploring what lies behind the facades of affluent suburbia and entering a universe of sexual extremes, drugs, and dangerous characters; and as the stakes rise and the body count grows, Phillie risks his marriage, his family, and his life -- and his very soul.