The Gate House

November 24, 2008
DeMille's follow-up to his bestselling The Gold Coast
features protagonist John Sutter falling back into old habits and acquaintances as he comes home to Long Island. Narrator Christian Rummel gives an awkward reading, struggling to capture the character of Sutter through a voice that sounds manufactured and often uneasy. Rummel fares slightly better with supporting characters such as Sutter's ex-wife, though the first-person narrative from Sutter's perspective ensures that most of the novel is read with that same nervous tone. Rummel never finds his groove, eternally searching for the proper narrative tone that will captivate the audience. A Grand Central hardcover (Reviews, Aug. 18).

August 18, 2008
Fans of bestseller DeMille will welcome this sequel to The Gold Coast
(1990), in which Susan Sutter, then the wife of tax attorney John Sutter, had a torrid affair with Frank Bellarosa, a powerful Mafia boss and the Sutters' neighbor on Long Island's tony Gold Coast, with fatal results for Bellarosa. After divorcing Susan, John sailed the world for three years, then built himself a new life in London. Now John has returned to the small gatehouse that was once part of his ex-wife's family estate, only to find Bellarosa's thuggish son, Anthony, living next door. In another coincidence, Susan has just reacquired the six-bedroom “guest cottage” where she and John lived as a married couple on her family's former property. Susan and John soon begin to explore an improbable reconciliation, even as they suspect she may be in Anthony's gun sights. The plot more than takes its time getting to its violent and predictable resolution, but DeMille devotees should have plenty of fun along the way.

DeMille returns to the gilded mansions of Long Island in this sequel to THE GOLD COAST (1990). Narrator Christian Rummel expertly characterizes Susan, the wealthy ex-wife of tax attorney John Sutter, who saunters back into his life following a torrid affair and her murder of powerful Mafia boss Frank Bellarosa. Rummel is most enjoyable affecting the local "lockjaw" pronunciations as the story mixes in "criminal" Italian accents just one generation removed from "deese" and "dose." Listening to this witty, entertaining novel, fans of DeMille will be hooked as they seek to find out if John and his estranged wife, the gloriously beautiful and crazy Susan, will ever find true happiness. R.O. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine