Showing results by author "Warren Adler" in All Categories

A man seeking to purchase an antique doll for his ailing grandchild opens up a Pandora's Box of hidden family secrets and intrigue that results in bitter hostility and murder. Josh and Emily, through brilliant deduction and imaginative enterprise, discover the clues that lead to the solution that lies at the heart of this mystery. As characters they are similar in conception to the witty bantering loving couple, Nick and Nora Charles of the famed Thin Man series created by the mystery writer Dashiell Hammett.

The poison pen of Polly Dearborn, an infamous Washington Post investigative reporter, has gone silent. When Polly is found hanging from her balcony in the Watergate apartments, Washington's elite and powerful rejoice - the Witch of Watergate is dead! But Polly's voice reaches beyond the grave, and her final articles may contain clues to some big secrets. Homicide detective Fiona Fitzgerald, well-versed in the behind-the-scenes dealings of Washington, doesn't buy the suicide angle.

When Charlie and Molly's son dies, their daughter-in-law remarries and is vaulted into an upper class world of money and privilege. She is now determined to lead a new life and keep her son free from the blue-collar influences of her ex in-laws. Forced to sue for their right to visit their beloved grandson, Charlie and Molly enter a world of courtroom conflict that deeply affects everyone involved, including the trial judge. Each of the players in this remarkable drama must search their souls for the right decision.

The caller made it clear - $10 million or her daughter's head. The power of unintended consequences sends the privileged life of prominent anti-war activist Sarah Raab crashing down around her. Fear and terror take hold, and Sarah turns to former CIA operative Carl Helman, a man she has only just met and who stands against everything she has been fighting for.

During a family reunion at their ancestral castle, the famed Von Kassel family - arms dealers for over 100 years - suddenly find themselves in possession of stolen plutonium capable of creating the most destructive weapon on earth. Previously aloof from the moral implications of their business, the family is torn apart by the deadly potential of their recent acquisition. Family conflicts are ignited that had long been avoided in order to maintain solidarity and the insulation of wealth and power.

Aging mafia Don Salvatore Padronelli, a.k.a. the Padre, is furious when fanatical terrorists capture his beloved daughter and grandson on a trip to Egypt. Fed up with diplomatic caution that prolongs their captivity, the Padre and his loyal henchman cleverly insinuate themselves into the White House and hold the President and his wife hostage. Now the Padre calls the shots on getting the President to take steps to release his family.

Thirty-eight-year old divorcee Grace Sorentino is in a precarious position, upwardly mobile in age, downwardly mobile in income. A cosmetician on Palm Beach's fashionable Worth Avenue, she barely makes enough to support her 16-year old daughter Jackie in their tiny apartment. Still they're scraping by, until Grace loses her job. Hanging on by a thread, Grace reluctantly pursues a cynical and bizarre scheme to snare a rich widower.

A womanizing married senator, enjoying a tryst in his Delaware beach home with a beautiful black woman, discovers that his paramour has accidentally drowned. Aware of the scandal that could ensue and destroy his political career, the senator mounts a campaign of cover-up and cynical lies designed to deflect the potential damage. This suspenseful tale of adultery, media manipulation, and political chicanery has familiar overtones and exposes the dilemma faced by any public figure who chooses the path of dissimulation and lying to protect his or her career.

Diplomacy, ethics, and passion clash in these chronicles of the social scene in the nation's capital. Originally published in Dossier magazine, these stories are a priceless series from Warren Adler about the rarely revealed, behind-the-scenes peccadilloes of official Washington. Revelations of life in the nation's capital, these stories make you privy to Washington's socially elite circles.