Flesh Tones

US: Random House Publishing Grou, 2003. Paperback. Very Good. A copy that has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. In such erotic thrillers as In Fidelity and Lip Service, acclaimed author M . J. Rose took readers to the darkest edges of desire. Now, in her most riv eting novel yet, she leads us across the fine line separating passion and o bsession, mercy and murder. In a New York courtroom, a woman stands accused of a controversial crime. G enny Haviland, thirty-eight, is said to have drugged and suffocated legenda ry painter George Gabriel. For two decades the tempestuous Gabriel has chal lenged audiences with his wild work. And in the end, the prosecution claims , he alienated the woman he first seduced, then enslaved-enough to cause hi s own death at her hands. Yet in Genny's mind there rests another story, one that started twenty year s before . . . one in which a college girl on summer break met an older, at tractive artist-and began a forbidden affair she would never forget, a shad owy, sensual union in which she was more helpless and more powerful than sh e would ever imagine. Then the discovery of a shocking secret blew it all a part: Genny's father was Jonathan Haviland, the renowned gallery owner who could make or break Gabriel's career. Now Genny contends she was only easing her old lover to a painless death, allowing him to escape the awful illness that was slowly eroding his sanity and self. But is that the whole truth? Or was Gabriel indeed killed-but for far more sordid reasons, from a motive driven by scandal and the threat of financial ruin? How much would Genny do for the man she profe.