The Weaver of Plots

From David Orsini, the highly praised author of SCHEMES, DISGUISES, & TRAPS; THE WOMAN WHO LOVED TOO WELL; THE GHOST LOVERS; and VANISHING BY DEGREES comes another compelling novel--THE WEAVER OF PLOTS. A woman shoots the lover who has betrayed her. A man rejects his infant son and lives to regret it. A woman's revenge, yoked as it is to her love/hate confusion, makes her its prisoner. These are some of the episodes that propel THE WEAVER OF PLOTS. THE WEAVER OF PLOTS is a fast-paced novel with suspense, thriller, literary, and romantic elements. Spanning twenty-five years (1950-1975), the novel traces the causes and the aftermath of a woman's retaliation against the lover who has spurned her. The story inhabits the world of the urbane, super rich: fashionable Manhattan restaurants, elegant New York City apartments, New England beachside compounds, ornate estates, and mountaintop hideaways. It is a luxurious and cinematic backdrop that is colored and stained by competitive gamesmanship, sexual transgressions, and destructive intrigues. The central character of the novel is Charlotte Scott, a privileged young woman who devises a plot to steal Noah Blake away from her best friend, Olivia Tanner. At first, it seems like a simple love triangle, but this complex narrative quickly draws the reader into multiple sub-plots that parallel and intersect the original triangle--including Charlotte's violent act of revenge against the lover who abandons her, as well as her unconventional relationship with two other men and her second act of revenge years later against Noah Blake. THE WEAVER OF PLOTS addresses the ongoing conversation involving a woman's right to defend herself against callous and abusive men by portraying these men in an unflattering light. At the same time, the novel portrays Charlotte as a complicated and ambivalent character. As self-aware as she is manipulative and devious, Charlotte eventually finds that her acts of revenge--pushed too far--are recoiling upon her.