Description

Filled with the mesmerizing eroticism of an Anne Rice novel, this new work by the author of "Lunch" presents the tale of a mysterious woman whose tortured past transforms her into the most exquisite instrument of revenge.

Pretty poison is her cry
Belladonna watch you die

Dark, enticing, and as deliciously decadent as Europe's fading upper classes shortly before and after World War II, Belladonna is an intoxicating tale of betrayal and revenge...

Midwesterner Isabella Ariel Nickerson is just eighteen, visiting London with her cousin June, when she is invited to what she thinks will be the most fabulous costume party. The year is 1935, and Isabella, innocent, spirited, and trusting, is about to be taken from the world she knows and subjected to the whims of a cabal of wealthy aristocrats who answer to no laws but their own. But, looking forward to her party and utterly inexperienced in life, Isabella does not know how far men will go to satisfy desire. Or how far a woman must go to redeem her soul...

Instead of dancing at a masked ball, Isabella will become the sacrificial lamb in a ritual of domination and submission known only to the noblemen who call themselves the members of the Club. Robbed of her freedom, identity, and dignity, the girl known as Isabella slowly disappears. In her place, a new woman is born. She calls herself Belladonna, and she lives for one purposerevenge.

Now, after an odyssey of escape, flight, and transformation, the bejeweled and utterly mysterious Belladonna will appear in swank 1950's Manhattan to create a spectacular nightclub. Always masked, as those who tormented her were, Belladonna will captivate both imaginations and hearts. No one outside her circle of loyal retainers guesses her true aim for becoming the toast of high society: She is waiting like a deadly spider for a member of the Club to walk into her web. And when he does, her exquisite plan for vengeance can finally begin...