Guilty Parties by Thomas Gifford

At the apex of the New York art world, murder is the newest fad

Harry and Sally, Belinda and Jack—two couples, four best friends. Inseparable since college, they stay close through their twenties and thirties, as they make their way to the top of the New York arts scene. Harry is a playwright, Jack a novelist, Belinda a painter, and Sally, well, Sally has always been happy just to be Harry’s wife. But as Harry and Belinda’s careers take off, Jack’s stalls. Unable to complete a second novel, his attitude becomes poisonous, even violent, until Belinda is forced to throw him out of their beautiful loft apartment. Single again for the first time in decades, she finds that in a city full of wolves, her husband may have the sharpest teeth.

As summer heat chokes New York, its most chic addresses are about to be drenched in the bluest blood the city has to offer.

“An extraordinary novel.” —Nelson DeMille, on The Assassini

“Full of blood and gore . . . the kind of book you can’t leave alone . . . a grand jigsaw puzzle.” —Grand Rapids Press, on The Wind Chill Factor

“A roller coaster ride of electrifying adventure and chilling suspense.” —Philadelphia Bulletin, on The Glendower Legacy