Author Description

From Booklist<br/><br/>Kay Prescott hires Diana Meissen as an au pair companion to her extremely perky 12-year-old daughter, Lisa. Diana (referred to consistently by Savage as "the young woman" to hide her true identity) has, of course, a deadly secret in her past, and she is plotting with Kay's husband, Adam, to do away with both Kay and Lisa--or is she? In the meantime, Diana's aunt has hired an out-of-work actor as a private eye to shadow Diana, and he quickly falls for her. The painstaking setup of all this becomes very frustrating as certain secrets are revealed but not fully. Diana is hard to sympathize with because of her great mystery, and it becomes apparent right away that Adam is a sadistic, cold-blooded killer with dark secrets of his own. The implausibility stems from the intended murders themselves, part of a conspiracy reaching back 30 years and revolving around similar murders committed against people in similar situations by a killer with the same initials as Adam. Precipice is an engrossing and highly implausible story that battles its way through a forest of mystery and occasional sentimentality on the way to a slam-bang conclusion. Joe Collins<br/><br/>Product Description<br/><br/>Death, deceit, and sexual obsession are set against the sensuous backdrop of the Caribbean, as wealthy Kate Prescott hires a young woman to be her daughter's companion--and to execute her murderous agenda. A first novel. 40,000 first printing. $40,000 ad/promo.<br/><br/>From Publishers Weekly<br/><br/>A lovely young stranger--with a wide streak of insanity befitting her tragic, mysterious past--penetrates the rich enclave on sunny St. Thomas in this entertaining thriller debut. Newly re-married island socialite Kay Prescott lives with her beefcake husband Adam and her 12-year-old daughter Lisa at Cliffhanger--their mansion perched on a seaside bluff. Kay's chance encounter with Ivy League Diana Meissen at the beach club gives her the idea that Diana would be the perfect