Introduction
Once in a lifetime each of us is entitled to a reckless moment when that to-hell-what-the-future-brings mood strikes and we toss caution to the wind like so much chaff. Impulsive, explosive, often destructive can be that mood's aftermath in one stretch of time when we let all hang on the line and don't care which way the wind blows. If we are lucky, we learn from it, go forward and never suffer the consequences.
Adrian Parmenter, our heroine, was one of the unfortunate people. Her past followed her, a lurking shadow in her memory, watching her every movement, measuring her every emotion, until one day she came home from the Miami Beach Racquet Club and faced her past!
Combine this shady mystery with a millionaire psychotic who has a yen for beautiful, masochistic women who like to beg, animals, and his damnable contraption referred to by his women as 'the chair', and we have another of Edward Mitchell's captivating stories. What happens when a contentedly married woman is confronted with the briberous choice of either having her husband destroyed or reverting back to a debauched lifestyle, a life of late hours, booze and sex such that Paris never saw, even in the height of its decadence.
It's a hard pill to swallow, but each of us harbors a secret-fantasy or reality-which we would rather not share with our mate. The publishers trust you will sympathize with Adrian Parmenter . . . perhaps a few will empathize.
-The Publishers