Roiling the waters this time is Congressman Buzzy Portofino, a young political firebrand with his eye on the White House. Invited to speak at East Hampton's posh, snobby Maidstone Club, the Hon. Buzzy stuns The Establishment by denouncing sin and demanding a national crusade against lust! Plus a boycott of films by the randy, tormented director Sammy Glique, a Lily Pond Lane resident, whom the Congressman assails as a "voluptuary". As intriguing as this is, plunging the neurotic Glique into depression and delighting the gossips, the amusement is abruptly halted when in the pre-dawn darkness Buzzy is ambushed on the Maidstone golf course with an arrow through the throat. Thundering Portofino is reduced to communicating through his PC.
Does the attack have anything to do with an annotated copy of Salman Rushdie' accursed book found in Buzzy's pocket? Or, more likely, is it linked to a controversial construction project menacing the gracious old resort with its sheer scale: the largest private house ever built in America, twice the size of the White House, larger than Bill Gates' place. Swiftly dubbed by Vanity Fair and The Times "The House that Ate the Hamptons", the scheme so appalls local folk hero Kurt Vonnegut Jr. that he declares he's selling and getting out. While other famed and wealthy Hamptonites form protest committees, bring lawsuits, and send their servants to form picket lines.
But who is behind the assassination attempt and this grotesque architectural assault on cultured sensibilities? Can Beecher and his stunning Lady Alix get to the bottom of all these murky doings and save the Hamptons? While rubbing elbows, dropping names, and enjoying a chilled Dom?
