The Necklace

Kate Brady is now 80 years old, living in Cleveland, Ohio, when her quiet life is interrupted by the arrival of the television anchor Andrea Pryor and her entourage. Beautiful, blond and famous, she is determined to make a documentary about Kate’s life with the notorious gangster, Ben Gold—as Kate, fearing for her secret, is just as determined not to. But Andrea’s persuasiveness along with the fact of Kate’s essential loneliness eventually changes her mind. Please, Kate thinks. I may not live until Saturday.

Andrea brings Kate to New York, puts her up at the Plaza Hotel, and begins interviewing her for the documentary. The problem is Kate’s stonewalling, which not only doesn’t discourage Andrea but makes her more determined than ever to discover her secret—which her reporter’s nose tells her is dynamite. They play a cat-and-mouse game–Andrea determined to get the secret out of her and Kate just as determined to keep it. The stalemate takes the two women from advisories into an unlikely friendship. But Andrea has a secret, too, that is revealed to Kate and the reader by a blackmailer who takes Andrea into a surprising life-changing experience and into the life of 18-year old Marianne Woodsman.

The Necklace tells the stories of three women, each with a dangerous secret. There is Kate Brady determined that her secret will die with her; Andrea Pryor being blackmailed for hers and 18-year-old Marianne Woodsman whose secret is hidden in her family’s Park Avenue penthouse; with their position on important Boards; their generous contributions to the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet and several charities; their well-known dinner parties coveted by the fifteen-minuters and enduringly rich and famous. Marianne runs for her life from her dangerously misfunctional family through a homeless shelter and a brothel; her story finally becoming intertwined with Kate’s, and Andrea’s in a three-generational embrace.