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Maris Matherly-Reed is vice-president of Matherly Press, the publishing house founded by her grandfather and currently headed by her father. She is the consummate book editor, with a fantastic instinct to spot a bestseller sitting in a slush pile. As ENVY begins, Maris thinks she has discovered one such diamond in the rough. At least she hopes the book fulfills the promise evident in the prologue, the only portion the author has submitted. Furthering the mystery, the author has signed only his or her initials, P. M. E., and given an incomplete address, St. Anne Island, Georgia. There is no phone number and no requisite self-addressed, stamped envelope. Frustrated but intrigued, Maris begins a quest to find and confront this enigmatic author.
Maris is married to Noah Reed, who authored a highly successful, critically acclaimed book when he was younger, but found he liked the business end of publishing better than the writing. Maris, who claims she was in love with him before she met him just from reading his book, is disappointed in his lack of creative output. However, she loves him and is as willing to wait until he is ready to write again, just as she is willing to overlook many not quite perfect aspects of her marriage.
Noah sends Maris off to Georgia to find the author, using the pressures of business as an excuse not to join her. When Maris arrives at St. Anne Island, she goes on something of a wild goose chase. Is the is caretaker of the semi-restored plantation P. M. E.? Is the author actually one of the patrons of the bar next to the boat dock? Maris does meet and persuade the true author to continue with the book --- but I won't spoil any of the surprises that Brown has in store for her characters and her readers. Suffice to say, Maris returns to New York feeling like she has accomplished something, but has the enigmatic author planned this conclusion all along?
Throughout ENVY, Brown interweaves the subplots of Maris's disillusionment with her marriage, her growing infatuation with Parker, and her relationship with her father. Ultimately, the story Brown has written as Parker Evans is far truer to Parker's reality than the fiction he presents. And it's this parallel plot development that heightens the suspense and keeps the reader guessing till all the answers are revealed in the final pages. ENVY may well be Sandra Brown's best book yet.
--- Reviewed by Debbie Ann Weiner
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