The case of Lucy Bending
"The three families were not unusual by the standards of Florida's Gold Coast. Affluently sun-warmed in their luxury beach-side homes, tanned and healthy as 100% pure fruit juice, they competed in conspicuous informality, drinking and partying together, changing partners. The men lived in a world of smart business deals - deals that were only wrong if they didn't work it out. Even if the business was pornography and behind it lurked the ice-smooth killers of organised crime. The women, lithe and predatory, indulged their appetites for men, possessions and influence. They all knew that they were smart enough to keep ahead of the game and that they would never be among the losers in life. Until things started to go wrong. Badly wrong. Until, blow by blow, they come to realise that they themselves, and even their children, could be the victims of their own casual conceit and greed. That the sun-and-surf surface of their world could collapse into quicksands of sudden violence and slow despair." - back cover.