Insatiable »

Marne Davis Kellogg is the author of the acclaimed Lilly Bennett mystery series. She lives in Denver, Colorado.

Jacqueline du Fidelio is a portrait painter with an international reputation and a dark secret in her past. Loyal only to her butler, closest friend, and confident, the snobbish, neurotic, and completely amoral Nigel Weatherby-Smith, Jacqueline is fiercely independent—until it comes to affairs of the heart. Her penchant for toxic romatinc involvements draws her to the worst kinds of men—from the rakishly unrelable and very married Ryder McCormick, her mother's former lover who has enthralled her since childhood, to Armand Weil, a debonair, fabulously wealthy art dealer who sweeps her off her feet, promises to take care of her forever, and deserts her at the worst possible moment. Junior Hammond, the sybaritic, obese, and uncultured heir to the Hammond oil fortune, finally succeeds in winning her hand in marriage. But like Jacqueline's other liaisons, the romance is soon wrapped in deadly shadows as members of the Hammond family begin to die in mysterious ways whenever Jacqueline is on the scene.

Is Jacqueline the innocent victim of careless, uncaring men and circumstances beyond her control? Or is she a dangerous manipulator, ruthlessly using her lovers to ensure her own survival? Does her apparent fragility actualy mask a cold, lethal core, an insatiable need to prove her invulnerability?

Taking readers from the lush hunt country of Virginia to New York City's glamorous art owrld, to the winter wonderland of Aspen, Colorado, and the treacherous mountains of Nepal, Insatiable builds to almost unbearable suspense.

Publishers Weekly

Unbelievable and Unlikable might serve as alternate titles for Kellogg's latest, billed as the start of a new series from the author of the popular Lilly Bennett books (1998's Bad Manners, etc.). But American Jacqueline di Fidelio, a society portrait painter, and her British butler, Nigel Weatherby-Smythe, a former safecracker and convict, would not, from the evidence presented here, appear to have any of the qualities that give series characters longevity: some degree of credulity and at least a bare minimum of empathy. Nigel, a bitchy bisexual who serves as unreliable narrator ("Basically, I'm sexless... I'm truly very happy living vicariously"), is at first amusing as he flaunts his snobbery and hypochondria, but both attitudes quickly grow stale. As for Jackie (or "Madam," as Nigel calls her), she is never convincing in any of her roles: abused daughter of a mad painter; glamorously enigmatic lover of the rich and famous; and finally the accused murderer of rivals, husbands and potential clients. Kellogg's descriptions of the lush life in contemporary Virginia, Paris, Nepal and other haunts of the privileged do have a certain fascination; would that she had spent as much time coloring in her human landscapes. Agent, Nick Ellison. (Jan. 16) Forecast: Readers of Kellogg's Lilly Bennett books might grab enough early copies of this to cause a stir, but disappointment and bad word-of-mouth are almost certain to limit its sales. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.