The Social Climber's Handbook
A Novel
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
HIGH SOCIETY CAN BE A KILLER.
Upper East Side socialite Daisy Greenbaum is accustomed to the finer things—designer clothes, summers in the Hamptons, elite private school educations for her daughters, and a staggeringly expensive Park Avenue apartment. But Daisy finds her well-heeled lifestyle on precarious footing after her husband, master of the universe Dick Greenbaum, learns about some shady dealings that threaten his position at The Bank.
Daisy refuses to allow her family to slip down the social ladder, so she devises a madcap plan: Anyone who jeopardizes her place at the top will simply have to be dispatched—six feet under. From Dick’s arrogant boss to his scheming former mistress to a pair of nosy bloggers, Daisy’s hit list is a who’s who of big names with even bigger secrets. But with the body count rising as the Dow Jones falls, can Daisy really get away with murder?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Jong-Fast pokes twisted fun at New York City's elite in her trite follow-up to Normal Girl. It's the spring of 2008, and trader Dick Greenbaum and his wife, Daisy, have clawed their way to the highest levels of Upper East Side society: they've got a $12 million Park Avenue apartment, their daughters attend private schools, and Daisy volunteers at the best charities. But the financial collapse looms, and a few skeletons are rattling around in their walk-in closets. Daisy is prepared to remove any obstacles in their way starting with Dick's "reputation-ruining" boss (poison) and his meddlesome ex-mistress (blunt force trauma). But when a pair of bloggers begin investigating Dick's company's financial dealings, they have no idea they'll have to confront the Upper East Side's most unlikely murderess. Daisy's victims deserve their grisly comeuppance, painted as they are by Jong-Fast as simple villains, though Daisy herself is hardly an avenging angel. As a campy bloodbath la Patrick Bateman in Jimmy Choos, the story succeeds, but the critique of the excesses of the recent past gets lost in the fluff.