False Faces

A cop goes undercover to investigate the murder of a woman on New York’s Fire Island: “A good yarn populated with well-drawn characters” (Booklist).

Alison, a young, single Manhattan retail buyer, first met Linda seven years ago, when both answered the same classified ad for a Fire Island share. Since then, they’ve been returning to Seaside Harbor every summer weekend.

But one night, after leaving Crane’s, a famed singles bar, Linda is found murdered, and Alison starts to realize how little she really knows about her housemate. Is the killer a spurned suitor? What about the mysterious lover back in the city Linda had spoken of—but whom Alison has never met?

Meanwhile, Long Island police officer Joe DiGregorio has been assigned to work undercover on the case, posing as a yuppie accountant. Together, Joe and Alison—who is unaware of Joe’s real identity—are about to unravel Linda’s many secrets . . .

“With refreshing insight, Margolis conveys the intensity and the crass materialism that are the hallmarks of a certain breed of young professionals.” —Publishers Weekly

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A beautiful, enigmatic weekender in yuppie Seaside Harbor, N.Y., is murdered one balmy summer night in this hip and urbane debut work. Ostensibly, Linda Levinson had no enemies. However, accounts vary about her character, as police officer Joe DiGregorio (Joe D) learns when he’s assigned to the homicide investigation. To her roommate, Linda was a good though moody friend. To her latest one-night stand, Linda was a castrating bitch. To her boss, the dead woman was “quiet . . . sweet . . . didn’t go out much.” Turns out he was also her sugar daddy and extremely subjective about her personality. Acting on a hunch that the victim was leading a double life, Joe D discovers that Linda was running a stock-market scam. Her partner in the con becomes the chief suspect in her slaying, but soon turns up a homicide statistic himself. The murderer, trying to add Joe D to the growing list of victims, succeeds in putting him out of commission–briefly. Battered yet unstoppable, Joe D finds that the human ego can be a lethal weapon. With refreshing insight, Margolis conveys the intensity and the crass materialism that are the hallmarks of a certain breed of young professionals.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Fire Island cop Joe DiGregorio goes undercover to find out who killed quietly swinging single Linda Levinson on her way home from legendary nightspot Crane’s. Disguised as an accountant(!), Joe D. takes a share in a local house, hunts up Linda’s housemate Alison Rosen, finds himself in bed with her after their first evening at Crane’s, and wonders how he’s going to break the news to his almost- fianc‚e Marie, as he focuses on the three men in Linda’s life: her long-standing married lover Jonathan Golland, her last one-night stand Rob Lewis, and Eric Farber, who turns out to be her partner in a securities scam. The plot lurches along rather than thickening; first it looks like Farber, then Lewis, then maybe Golland–no, Farber . . . First-novelist Margolis is best at evoking the intently vacuous ambiance of Fire Island (“I think you’re ready for number two on your face”); his characters and mystery, though, are strictly from hunger. — Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Seth Margolis live with his wife in New York City and has two grown children. He received a BA in English from the University of Rochester and an MBA in marketing from New York University’s Stern School of Business Administration. When not writing fiction, he is a branding consultant for a wide range of companies, primarily in the financial services, technology and pharmaceutical industries. He has written articles for the New York Times and other publications on travel and entertainment.