HE AGREED TO PROTECT HER FROM A VENGEFUL MOBSTER. HE JUST DIDN’T REALIZE HE’D HAVE TO JOIN THE MOB TO DO IT. Ray Corson came to Hollywood to be a screenwriter, not hired muscle. But when money’s tight and a beautiful woman asks for your help, how can you say no? But going up against a man like Lance Halliday takes more than just physical strength and the guts to use it. It takes friends in high places – or low ones. Soon, Ray finds himself on the payroll of Lenny Scarpa, L.A.’s chief drug supplier. Only Scarpa’s hiding secrets even darker than Halliday’s – and, as Ray discovers, Rebecca’s hiding the darkest secret of all…

An elegant reimagining of the life of Alma Mahler, the lovely, aristocratic fin-de-siècle composer who abandoned her own art to become the inspiration and collector of geniuses. At the turn of the century, "the most beautiful girl in Vienna" stood at the threshold of a promising musical career. But instead, she turned her considerable talents to becoming a freelance muse. Passionate, fickle, brilliant, and alcoholic, she conquered a series of difficult geniuses, including the composer Gustav Mahler (whom she sent to Freud for marriage counseling); the architect Walter Gropius, who went on to found the Bauhaus movement; the writer Franz Werfel, author of The Song of Bernadette; and the revolutionary painters Gustav Klimt and Oskar Kokoschka. Deftly bling period detail and modern sensibility, Max Phillips presents the bold, unapologetic Alma, who narrates her own provocative story, bringing to life the luminaries of her era as she tells of her triumphs in the fading elegance of Central Europe's beau monde, her flight from Hitler's Anschluss, and her exile in golden-age Hollywood. A glittering, darkly sensual novel, The Artist's Wife turns the lens of history upon the nature of inspiration, ambition, and love.

Nick Wertheim first meets Julia when he's aged ten and she's 19. Already half in love with her, he saves her from a snake. Julia is a wild card, an alcoholic, erratic and beautiful. Their story spans 20 years as they fall in and out of love.