The Blackmailer

The glittering, sharp and sinister work of one of our most incisive and wickedly funny satirists; ''Isabel Colegate has no rival'' (The Times)''What we feel for each other is really a passion for power,'' said Judith. ''We want to destroy each other by making the other fall in love with us.''Judith Lane, not-quite-beautiful but charmingly serious, is the young widow of the war hero Anthony Lane, and an editor at the successful if rather rakish publisher Hanescu Lane & Co. Ltd. But one evening the harmonious routine of Judith-s life is interrupted when she receives her first visit from Baldwin Reeves, who reveals that Anthony-s wartime adventures were not quite as glorious as the newspaper reports would have her believe. To protect Anthony-s family from the scandal, Judith reluctantly acquiesces to the repellent but attractive Reeves-s demands - but both blackmailer and blackmailee soon find themselves out of their depth in ways they could not have anticipated.Darkl