Fiction, Mystery & Crime, Romance

Social Crimes: A Novel

Name: Social Crimes: A Novel
Author: Jane Stanton Hitchcock
ISBN: 9780062259233

by Jane Stanton Hitchcock

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Overview

When Jo Slater, one of the grandest of New York's grandes dames and great patron of the arts, befriends a young French countess against the warnings of her friends, she's asking for trouble. But by the time Jo discovers the truth about the mysterious newcomer, it's already too late. Abruptly dethroned and dispossessed—knocked from her pedestal by the treacherous young woman she took under her wing—Jo finds herself an outcast in the privileged world she once ruled.

But she's not about to surrender her throne and her fortune so easily. Reaching back into the eighteenth century, Jo concocts an elegant and ingenious scheme involving Marie Antoinette and the greatest historical swindle of all time. In order for her plan to work, however, Jo must resort to the most desperate of all measures: murder.

A compulsively readable novel that scales the heights and plumbs the depths of the New York social scene, Social Crimes also tells a riveting tale of mystery and manners, obsession and revenge.

Synopsis

New York Times bestselling author Jane Stanton Hitchcock's Social Crimes is a riveting thriller of manners, obsession, and revenge that scales the heights and plumbs the depths of the New York social scene.

When Jo Slater, one of New York’s premier socialites and a patron of the arts, befriends a French countess, she ignores warnings from friends about the mysterious newcomer. Soon, the young woman knocks Jo off her Park Avenue throne. But using her knowledge of the greatest historical swindle of all time—a true story involving Marie Antoinette—Jo sets out to reclaim her fortune and her place in society.

For the plan to work, however, she must resort to the most desperate of measures: murder. Social Crimes is a savvy social satire bursting with money, betrayal, and passion that will thrill readers of sophisticated mysteries.

About the Author, Jane Stanton Hitchcock

Jane Stanton Hitchcock is the New York Times bestselling author of The Witches' Hammer, Trick of the Eye, Social Crimes, and One Dangerous Lady, as well as several plays. She lives with her husband, syndicated foreign affairs columnist Jim Hoagland, in New York City and Washington, D.C.

Reviews

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Editorials

New York Post

“Hitchock’s mysteries are savvy social satires and well-constructed clocks, ticking down to nail-biting climaxes.”

Washingtonian

“This novel’s got everything--passion, betrayal, money, obsession, murder. It’s the book Patricia Highsmith and Edith Wharton might have written together.”

New York Observer

“Sophisticated entertainment for readers with a taste for luxury and a peeping-Tom urge to spy on high society.”

Christopher Buckley

“Foie gras, champagne, a famous pearl necklace, and socialites at each other’s throats. What more could you ask for? Great fun.”

Marie Brenner

“Thrums with wicked wit and an insider’s view of court life in the Manhattan and Southampton of the twenty-first century. Hitchcock has seen it and lived it and shares all. She has a keen eye and a perfect ear.”

New York Post

Hitchock’s mysteries are savvy social satires and well-constructed clocks, ticking down to nail-biting climaxes.

Washingtonian

This novel’s got everything—passion, betrayal, money, obsession, murder. It’s the book Patricia Highsmith and Edith Wharton might have written together.

New York Observer

Sophisticated entertainment for readers with a taste for luxury and a peeping-Tom urge to spy on high society.

New York Observer

Sophisticated entertainment for readers with a taste for luxury and a peeping-Tom urge to spy on high society.

DailyCandy.com

The story has all the perfect page-turners: mystery, double-crossing, aristocracy, and murder...drippingly good beach reading.

Avenue

There is enough real-life inspiration for the fictional characters to keep cocktail parties from Martha's Vinyard to the Hamptons abuzz all summer.

Newsday

An amusing and highly readable X-ray of Manhattan's smart set. Hitchcock does a smashing job...her clever and funny.

New York Times

Beyond an elaborate plot featuring a swindle involving Marie Antoinette, Social Crimes doubles as a primer on decorating and entertaining dos and don'ts gleaned from the gilded set Ms. Hitchcock knows so well.

People

(A) killer read...this deliciously dark novel sneaks a knowing glimpse at a gilded world.
— (Selected as a Beach book of the week)

New York Daily News

In Social Crimes, Jane Stanton Hitchcock sets out to bring New York's high society low, and she does in a witty little book that taxes only the rich.

Publishers Weekly

How does Hitchcock's amusing saga differ from the scads of books involving money, murder and high society? There's the economy and wit of her prose ("murder was never my goal in life," heroine Jo Slater begins), and then there's Jo's awareness of how silly the upper crust is ("if you're nice and you lose all your money, you're out. But if you're a sh-t with a private plane, you're in"). Playing on the tried and true theme of the older wife being dumped for the young miss, Hitchcock (Trick of the Eye) offers a funny, lightweight tale. Jo is living the life: she's married to a billionaire, owns a sumptuous apartment in Manhattan, a rambling home in the Hamptons and a magnificent collection of 18th-century art. Things are just perfect until pretty young thing Monique de Passy enters her world (seemingly as a friend), Jo's husband dies, and Jo learns that he's left his estate to none other than the charming French countess. What follows and constitutes the bulk of the book is Jo's attempt to frame Monique as a seductress and murderer. Her approach is, for the most part, honorable. Jo is smart and has plenty of connections, and even though her financial situation becomes dire after her husband's death (she takes cabs instead of limousines and wears old couture dresses to parties), she holds her head high and eventually triumphs. Hitchcock's prose is airy and her plot moves quickly, making this a quintessential beach book. (June) Forecast: Readers of Diane Johnson's Le Divorce and this season's bestselling The Nanny Diaries will lap this up. Come summer, Social Crimes is likely to show up in tote bags and on cabana tables from Boca and Bridgehampton to Beverly Hills. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Ruth Rendell meets Dominick Dunne in this deliciously dark and witty novel about social climbing and murder. When husband Lucius dies of a heart attack under rather sordid and suspicious circumstances, prominent New York socialite Jo Slater is shocked to learn that he has left his sizable estate, including the Southampton mansion and Fifth Avenue apartment, to a mysterious French countess. Exiled from the kingdom of money, power, and privilege, Jo struggles to rebuild her life only to find herself thwarted at every turn by the countess. From working as a Park Avenue interior decorator to selling "wholesale carpets and hotel furnishings on Lexington and 26th Street," Jo quickly slides down the social ladder until she hits rock bottom, buying a pair of Hush Puppies (on sale) for her aching feet: "Symbolizing my ugly new life of drudgery and hopelessness, those Hush Puppies were just about the most depressing purchase I had ever, ever made." Obsessed with recovering her fortune and place as queen of "le tout New York," Jo concocts an audacious scheme of fraud and murder. Can she pull it off? For sophisticated readers wanting the perfect beach read, Hitchcock's third novel (after Trick of the Eye and The Witches' Hammer) offers a bubbly cocktail of psychological suspense and social satire. Strongly recommended for popular fiction collections. Wilda Williams, "Library Journal" Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A lukewarm tale of suspense about an obsessed Manhattan woman who grows as evil as her nemesis. Celebrating her birthday in Southampton, Jo Slater, at "a certain age," appears to have it all. Once a steakhouse waiter, she now stands next to her husband, Lucius, worth $200 million. She thrives in Manhattan's art scene and counts many friends. But, alas, image misleads. At the party, Jo meets a fawning Countess Monique de Passy. Lucius turns testy, and Jo soon learns what everyone, including the reader, already knows: Lucius and the Countess are having an affair. Interrupting their cabana tryst, Jo so startles Lucius that he suffers a fatal heart attack. She subsequently learns her husband had changed his will, leaving everything to Monique. Poor Jo loses the Southampton estate and the Fifth Avenue condo. Worse yet, Monique cleverly foils Jo's every attempt to start a new life. Ambling home one night after a bleak day spent selling carpet, Jo drops in at the posh King Cole Room to splurge on a drink or two. A woman who just happens to look like Monique also drops in, and Jo's four-year-long obsession to strike back at Monique crystallizes into a plan: Jo will hire the woman in the bar, an escort named Oliva, to pose as Monique. The faux Monique will consult a lawyer about filing a will, which will return Lucius' estate to Jo. Of course, for Jo to collect, Monique must be dispatched. Jo hatches a jerrybuilt scheme that culminates in Monique's death-the Countess dives over a balcony grasping at a million-dollar necklace Jo dangles before her. Jo returns triumphant to the social whirl, while in some dark place Oliva waits to claim her due. A Hampton breeze that rarely chills. Hitchcock (Trickof the Hammer, 1994, etc.) misses the psychological insight that can make readers squirm with empathy.