A Death in California

London: Allen Lane, 1982. 1st UK Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. 8vo. Full red cloth. xii, 370 pp. Slight bumping to spine ends. Dust jacket lightly bumped to extremities. This is the story of Hope Masters, a beautiful 31-year-old, twice divorced socialite who lived at a million-dollar address, yet qualified for food stamps - the California golden girl...with a poor appetite and a bad back. One weekend, Hope and her fiance, a young advertising executive, went to her family's ranch in the Sierras. In the middle of the night, she awoke with a gun barrel in her mouth. Her fiance was dead. The man with the gun - handsome, well-spoken - told Hope he had a Mafia contract to kill her and her children. Instead, he raped her and held her captive. And by morning he was behaving more like her lover than a killer. Even after he disappeared, she was under his spell. This is not only a murder story, but a vivid portrait of a woman caught between terribly conflicting emotions - mortal fear of the man who killed her fiance and reluctant fascination with him. With great skill the author portrays the intelligent, charming, totally evil murderer, the cat-and-mouse manhunt, the bizarre trial with all its twists and surprises, and the world of southern California's very rich.