Isabel Colegate: The Blackmailer

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. Darkly funny, strangely sexy, and glittering with Isabel Colegate's scalpel-sharp wit, The Blackmailer is a savage and sinister comic classic.