House of Lords

The corruption of Jeffrey Blaine begins on the night of his daughter's eighteenth birthday party. That so many of the city's elite have gathered to pay tribute to this man's teenage daughter is testament to his stature as one of New York's most powerful financiers. Yet Blaine himself is bored, chafing, hungry for a fresh new challenge.

While the party is in full swing, an underage woman gets drunk and then is raped by one of Blaine's guests. In the confusion that follows, Blaine agrees not to call the police. His complicity is witnessed by a notorious gossip columnist -- making him vulnerable to a scandal that could destroy him.

Enter Chet Fiore, a young man of shadowy provenance who arrives at the party and immediately sets things in order. Where did he come from? Why is he there? Blaine doesn't know. But Fiore's grace under pressure commands Blaine's attention; and what he eventually learns about Fiore -- that he is a rising figure in organized crime -- both terrifies and energizes him. Fiore reappears early the next morning at Blaine's country house and assures him there won't be a scandal. The gossip columnist "has been taken care of." It won't be long before Blaine learns what Fiore wants in exchange for making the problem go away.

Jeffrey Blaine's straight-arrow life will never be the same. In one sense, he is being blackmailed; in another, Chet Fiore is exactly what Jeffrey Blaine has been looking for. The tempestuous relationship between these two powerful men will take several unexpected detours in what turns out to be a deadly dance of money and corruption that pits organized crime against the glittering world of high society and Wall Street finance.

Philip Rosenberg's previous books include the bestsellers Badge of the Assassin (with Robert K. Tannenbaum) and Point Blank (with Sonny Grosso). His numerous screenwriting credits include the adaptation of Tim O'Brien's In the Lake of the Woods and the sequel to To Sir with Love, starring Sidney Poitier. He lives in Danbury, Connecticut.