Publisher Description

With a brilliant comic voice as well as Jane Austen's penchant for social satire, Candace Bushnell, who with Sex and the City changed forever how we view New York City, female friendships, and the love of a good pair of Manolos, now brings us a sharply observant, keenly funny, wildly entertaining latter day comedy of manners. Modern-day heroine Janey Wilcox is a lingerie model whose reach often exceeds her grasp, and whose new-found success has gone to her head. As we follow Janey's adventures, Bushnell draws us into a seemingly glamorous world of $100,000 cars, hunky polo players and media moguls, Fifth Avenue apartments, and relationships whose hidden agendas are detectable only by the socially astute. But just as Janey enters this world of too much money and too few morals, unseen forces conspire to bring her down, forcing her to reexamine her values about love and friendship--and how far she's really willing to go to realize her dreams.

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Bruno's day has not started well. The Saint Denis Chief of Police is busy. A French-Spanish summit to be held in a local chateau is being threatened by Basque separatists, and animal rights campaigners are causing havoc attacking local foie gras farms. Up to his ears with ETA and PETA, he's not even had time for lunch. And it's about to get worse. A local archaeological team, digging for evidence of prehistoric man, unearths a well-preserved skeleton. Yet it's a lot more recent than they'd hoped - boasting a Swatch on its wrist and a bullet-hole in its skull. Bruno suspects a link between the two activist groups and the mystery corpse. With an influx of visitors making Saint Denis almost as crowded as the excavation's grave, the key appears to lie with one of these outsiders. Bruno must think fast, and keep his wits about him. Especially as the answer may lie a little closer to home. The Crowded Grave marks the welcome return of the delightful Bruno, Chief of Police. Martin Walker serves up a sense-stirring portrait of the culture, camaraderie and culinary customs of French country life, accompanying this with a wonderfully satisfying and intoxicating mystery.

Author Biography

Candace Bushnell is the internationally bestselling novelist whose first book, Sex and the City, was the basis for the HBO hit series and blockbuster movies. She is the author of seven novels, including Lipstick Jungle and The Carrie Diaries, which were made into popular TV series. She is the winner of the 2006 Matrix Award for books and a recipient of the Albert Einstein Spirit of Achievement Award.

Review

"A collection of Witty, socially relevant vignettes... These clever tales seduce the reader as juicy gossip ... The tone is light and snappy, the humor tickling like a metronome, with genuine sweetness mixed in with the manic-schmooze reporting."
"Provides a prime banquette seat to witness the intense and rather frightening mating rituals of attractive, successful, over-35-and-still-unmarried set."
"Vivid characterizations and astute social commentary...a realism that rivals Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities."

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