Subversion

Rosalind Wilcox has come a long way from the small-town Ohio of her childhood. As the house counsel for a Washington, D.C., investment firm, she scoffs at negotiating, relishes being a dominatrix in bed, and can rattle off the features of various assault rifles without blinking.

But she has a softer side too, as evidenced by her weight-loss program, get-organized program, tobacco-reduction program, and record-breaking one year with the same lover, Marshall, a country gentleman twenty years her senior, a partner in the firm, and her boss. When Marshall is murdered just after Rosalind discovers $3.7 million missing from a company account, she discovers a scandal of corruption that will bring the old boys? network to its knees. Enter a protective old flame from her hometown who has eye-opening information about her missing father?s past, and Rosalind is forced to reevaluate her life at the same time she is called upon to protect it.

Edgy and fast-paced, with dead-on dialogue, Subversion yields a fabulous new spin on sex and work and the single woman. With a blunt, sassy cast of characters you?ll never forget, this is a riveting debut you won?t be able to put down.

?I always hated that word, ?boyfriend,? and I never used to use it. Now, it seems I have to say it, if only to limit the come-ons I have to fend off in the course of a day. But that morning, I had a boyfriend. Even if I couldn?t tell anyone about him. I had a rich boyfriend, a good job, a decent apartment, and the pleasant delusion that I knew the score. I guess I should have stayed in bed.?

T. A. Alderson earned a master?s degree in creative writing from Columbia University and is the author of a collection of short stories, Michelson in the Desert. Now working in the environment division of the Department of Justice, Alderson lives in Maryland.