False Faces

With refreshing insight, Margolis conveys the intensity and the crass materialism that are the hallmarks of a certain breed of young professionals. -PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY

A good yarn populated with well-drawn characters. A credible portrait of the Fire Island singles scene gives the work a solid aura of [believability]. -BOOKLIST

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

One night, after leaving Crane’s, the singles bar that often serves as a pickup place, Linda Levinson is found murdered. Is her killer a spurned suitor whose advances Linda rejected? What about the mysterious lover back in the city about whom Linda had spoken but whom Alison has never met?

Long Island police officer Joe DiGregorio is assigned to work undercover on the case, posing as a yuppie accountant. Together, Joe and Alison, who is unaware of Joe’s masquerade, set out to find the murderer before he strikes again. In the process, they find out that Linda was a woman of many secrets-and find themselves falling in love in an atmosphere in which nobody can be trusted.