CONVERSATIONS WITH MR. PAIN

As this erotic mystery unfolds, the lost art of conversation seems to have been rediscovered in the scintillating dialogue that whips and snaps between Stella, a vivacious Bohemian writer and eco-activist, and Edward Prain, a refined connoisseur of the rare books on hand in Stella's fusty London bookshop.
While Prain is mysteriously aloof about his background, Stella finds his insights into art more and more stimulating, until one rainy afternoon she makes a startling discovery: Prain is the head of England's most prestigious publishing house and a leading collector of art. What's more, he knows more about her than she realized-he knows, for example, that for a while she posed nude as an artists' model. And he would like her to come to tea at his country estate . . . to discuss her writing.
Stella is too intrigued-and too eager to escape her starving artist's life-to say no. But the cat-and-mouse game only intensifies at Prain's sumptuous estate, where she finds herself engaged in an increasingly devilish conversation on the making of art, the selling of art, and the protection of self . . . as if her life depended on it.