Bluff

At the start of this wry, sly caper novel from Hitchcock (Mortal Friends), 56-year-old former socialite and accomplished poker player Maude Warner, dressed in a vintage Saint Laurent suit (bought back when Yves was still designing) and thrift shop–purchased Louboutin shoes, walks into the Four Seasons restaurant in Manhattan, pulls a handgun from her faux Birkin bag, and fires. A bullet hits billionaire financier Sun Sunderland, who was lunching with his business partner, Burt Sklar, “accountant to the stars.” Sklar is also the man Maude blames for stealing her family’s fortune. In the chaos that follows, Maude drops the gun, calmly walks out of the restaurant, and catches a train back home to Washington, D.C. As she says, “Older women are invisible and we don’t even have to disappear.” Chapters vividly narrated by Maude explain what led her to commit her crime and offer hints about what her endgame might be. This delicious novel of sweet revenge reveals, with wit and stylish vigor, a world—New York high society—that the author clearly knows intimately. [em](Apr.) [/em]