Barbara Rogan

a mystery

Dangerous fiction

When a glamorous literary agent falls prey to a violent stalker, she discovers that the publishing biz can really be murder, for fans of The Spellman Files and Maisie Dobbs “Suspenseful . . . Barbara Rogan cleverly explores . . . our capacity for self-deception and weaves it into an absorbing mystery that keeps its secret until the very end.” —NPR Jo Donovan always manages to come out on top. Originally from the backwoods of Appalachia, she forged a hard path to elegant lunches and parties among New York City’s literati. At thirty-five, she’s the widow of the renowned novelist (and notorious playboy) Hugo Donovan, the owner of one of the best literary agencies in town, and is one of the most sought-after agents in the business. But all this is about to fall apart, as a would-be client turns stalker, a hack shops around a proposal for an unauthorized tell-all biography of Hugo, and a handsome old flame shows up without warning. Both a seasoned author and a former literary agent herself, Barbara Rogan knows the publishing world from all angles. Fans of Lisa Lutz and Jaqueline Winspear will adore Jo Donovan and Rogan’s wickedly sharp tale that skewers the dangerous fictions we read—and the dangerous fictions we tell ourselves.

A Mystery

A Dangerous Fiction

Grace, tricked into betraying her beloved politician father by the man she loves, finds herself wanting revenge, in a novel of seduction, treachery, love, and political scandal

Saving Grace

A writer of ghost stories takes up residence in an old house her husband has discovered on Long Island Sound. Soon, the house is haunted by strange happenings, and characters from Emma's book begin taunting her. Are they supernatural occurrences or does someone from Emma's secret past wish her harm? Everything is cast in suspicion, even Emma's marriage.

Suspicion

Barbara Newman

"Bashir Gemayel...was commander-in-chief of Lebanon's Christian forces; [Barbara Newman] was an ABC news investigative producer doing a segment in Beirut for '20/20.' Eighteen months later, in 1982, Gemayel was, at the age of thirty-four, elected president of Lebanon, and he and Barbara Newman had become lovers. Their romance developed against the backdrop of Gemayel's rise to power from Beirut's bloodiest days of civil war through the Israeli invasion. It ended with his assassination. In the years since..., Newman and the world have witnessed Beirut's descent into the mindless horror of anarchy and terrorism. But Newman did not sit helplessly by as Gemayel's country abandoned the ideas and dreams for which he died. Rather, she laid siege to Lebanon, utilizing all her investigative skills. In that process Newman turned up some of the most revealilng stories of the war, all of them never before told, including who killed Bashir Gemayel"--from jacket flaps.

Love and Death in Beirut

The Covenant

In the common course of events, people choose houses. Sometimes, though, it doesn't work that way. Sometimes houses choose people: They reach out, they whisper, they entice and enfold. Novelist Emma Roth was convinced that New York City was the only place to live, until the day she encountered the old Victorian mansion overlooking the Long Island Sound. Her husband, Roger, a chaos physicist, was entranced by the ever-changing convergence of land, water, and air; their son, Zack, by a backyard large enough for a real game of soccer. But for Emma, it was the octagonal tower library, whose panoramic view suggested a sort of omniscience no writer could resist. Yet no sooner do they move into their dream house than the seemingly impossible occurs. Characters in a computer game address cruel personal remarks to Emma. Her manuscript is tampered with, her home invaded, her family threatened. Before long it is obvious that her tormentor not only has access to her home and her computer's hard drive, but also to her innermost thoughts, secrets, and fears. Hers is an intimate enemy, both vicious and elusive. Because these things happen only when Emma is alone in the house, she is driven to question her own sanity. Could Roger be right when he hints that it's all in her head? Local rumor has it that the house is haunted, but Emma, a writer of ghost stories herself, no more believes in real ghosts than professional magicians believe in magic. As the trespasses into her life grow more bizarre and more dangerous, suspicion is cast in ever-widening arcs, until Emma is left to question every relationship she has, including her marriage. Suspicion is an irresistible and addictively compelling tale about a woman who is both haunted and hunted.

A Novel

Café Nevo is a Tel Aviv gathering place for artists, politicians, lovers, and Bohemians—Arabs and Jews, young and old, conservative and radical. Nevo is presided over by Emmanual Sternholz, the waiter whose unblinking gaze takes in the tangled web of destinies and desires spun out around him. In this comic, tragic, and compelling mosaic of intertwined lives, Barbara Rogan has created a dazzling work of fiction—and a marvelously illuminating mirror of Israel in its pioneering heyday.

Café Nevo

ROWING IN EDENSam is not the only tormented soul in the tiny upstate village of Old Wickham. There's also Peter Quinn, a brilliant, troubled fourteen-year-old with quick fists, no past, and a truckload of attitude. Although a judge found him innocent, Peter knows better. Some things, he figures, "it don't matter why you did 'em, only that you did 'em." On its surface, Old Wickham, New York, is a Norman Rockwell montage of red-cheeked youngsters skating on ponds, dogs frolicking in the snow, and villagers huddled around wood-burning stoves. Yet someone in this idyllic community has been setting fires. Suspicions divide the village along the usual fault lines. Scapegoats are sought, outsiders shunned. The back room of the country store gives rise to a Greek chorus of collective rage. In this crucible of distrust, unlooked for alliances are forged, old alliances are tested, and no one emerges unchanged. Alice Hoffman hails Barbara Rogan as a "masterful story teller." The New York Times praises her as a passionate writer whose prose is "as vivid as lightning bolts." Now, with Rowing in Eden, a morally complex story about friendship, love, marriage, and family -- in other words, all the things that matter most -- Barbara Rogan not only fulfills but generously exceeds the expectations of fans and reviewers alike.

Barbara Rogan

Books

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