Tripping Arcadia

Lena has dropped out of medical school and badly needs work. Her father was injured and laid off at nearly the same moment, and her parents are close to bankruptcy. When one of Boston's most elite families, the secretive Verdeaus, unexpectedly offers her a job, she takes it, even though the interview is strange and the duties are left vague.

By day she assists the family doctor and looks after his patient Jonathan, the sickly, poetic, hard-drinking heir to the Verdeau empire, whose temperament is as difficult as his illness is puzzling. By night she works extra hours at the family's lavish parties, covering for their self-destructive habits and trying not to fall for Jonathan's captivating sister, Audrey.

Then Lena learns that the Verdeau patriarch is the man who brought about her own family's ruin. She resolves to take revenge, and that poisonous plan draws her deeper into the family's hedonistic circle than she expected. She must decide how much she will give up, and who she will sacrifice, to get even.

This is Kit Mayquist's debut, a modern gothic novel with the glamour of The Great Gatsby and the secrets and darkness that wealth can conceal. It explores family legacy and inheritance, the compromises people make to get by today, and the dangerous allure of money.