Rich Deceiver
A Novel
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
Money changes everything in this darkly comic tale of romantic revenge
When shy, insecure Liverpudlian Ellie Freeman unexpectedly wins more than a million pounds in the football betting pools, she sees it as a way to transform the life of her bitter, frustrated, and, above all, distant husband Malcolm. She hides the news of her win from Malc, and uses the money to invest in a firm that will give her husband a better job than the warehouseman position he currently holds. And, indeed, the new job does make Malc a new man—a new man who suddenly envisions a life without Ellie. Can Ellie, too, become a new person? Can she become a stronger, more confident woman who is capable of winning her husband back . . . and is that even what she wants anymore?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lightweight but wickedly comic, this novel adroitly weaves a send-up of the class system, emancipated women and professional do-gooders through its chronicle of the shifting fortunes of a lower-middle class British couple. Ellie Freeman, 39, dowdy and in a rut, has just won over 1.5 million in the pools. She doesn't want a car, exotic travel, or a new home. She wants to rebuild her floundering marriage by giving her apathetic and sullen husband, Malcolm, new vigor and a positive self-image. And she wants to keep her new fortune totally secret. With the aid of a shrewd and sympathetic bank manager, she invests heavily in a young, undercapitalized business and discreetly arranges for the owners to put her insecure and unmotivated husband in a responsible position. Within a year the company prospers. Malcolm joins a health club, gives up red meat, takes up squash--and leaves Ellie for another woman. Ellie, who has stayed home to be the perfect housewife (with Malcolm's encouragement), is shattered, but as this surprising book shifts gears from the romantic to the gothic, the author of Nasty Habits shows what an embittered woman with a lot of imagination and even more money can achieve.
