Brilliant
By Marne Davis Kellogg
(St. Martin's Paperbacks, Mass Market Paperback, 9780312991432, 352pp.)
Publication Date: June 2004
Other Editions of This Title: Hardcover
Categories: Mystery & Detective - General, Romance - Contemporary
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Meet Kick Keswick, an elegant and self-possessed American who has been at London's venerable Ballantine & Company Auctioneers for over thirty years. She is an expert on paintings, furniture, and objets d'art, and so far has lived a perfectly happy life with things on her mind other than love.
In fact, Kick rarely lets anyone into her private world. She prefers it that way. Kick doesn't need a man in her life, messing things up. But when American industrialist, scoundrel, and womanizer Owen Brace grabs the faltering Ballantine & Company in a corporate takeover, he turns Kick's world upside down, opening her eyes to large-scale love, romance, and sensuous pleasure. But something tells Kick that Brace's motives are anything but sincere. And when he gets near enough to threaten Kick's closely guarded life, Brace learns the dangers of underestimating this woman.
From sophisticated London to cozy Provence, France, Brilliant is a playfully delicious novel of suspense, masterful revenge, and secrets of the multi-faceted kind...
A native of Denver, Colorado, Marne Davis Kellogg was educated in Paris and Rome, and from 1966-1968, volunteered as a Military Airlift Command/Braniff flight attendant, serving on troop transports to Vietnam. Marne has worked as a translator for a Colorado-based international oil company; a consumer reporter for a radio station; the Director of Communications for the Denver Center for the Performing Arts; an assistant bureau chief for the Rocky Mountain Bureau of People magazine, and since 1981 has been Executive Vice President of The Kellogg Organization, Inc.
She lives with her husband, Peter, the president and CEO of The Kellogg Organization, Inc., a national fund-raising counseling firm, in Denver, San Francisco, and on their Colorado ranch. Please visit www.marnedaviskellogg.com
"Here's a heroine who loves diamonds, great food, and great ways to get revenge. What more could any woman want? Brilliant is a delicious novel you'll devour like the most scrumptious meal." -Janet Evanovich
"Fast-paced, well-written, and full of colorful characters...madly entertaining." -The Seattle Times
"Like indulging in a guilty pleasure...Brilliant is pure fun and offers a revealing peak into the lives of the rich and titled in london." -The Denver Post
"An elegant and luscious suspense novel, filled with intriguing twists and turns. As always, Kellogg's characters are funny, sexy, interesting, and quirky. Great summer reading. Brilliant is, in a word, brilliant." -Nelson DeMille, author of Up Country
"Great wines, elegant villains, remarkable sex and a surprise ending-what more could any reader ask for?"-Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher, authors of Love by the Glass: Tasting Notes from a Marriage and The Wall Street Journal Guide to Wine
"Marne Davis Kellogg's portrait of a world of opulence and decadence is so vivid she must be an insider. Enjoy the guilty pleasures of Brilliant . I did."-Harry Smith, CBS, Anchor, "The Early Show"
"Among the definitions of the word 'brilliant'... are these: 'full of light, shining'; 'sharp and clear in tone'; and 'marked by unusual and impressive intellectual acuteness.' These all apply to Marne Davis Kellogg's Brilliant , one of the most exhilarating novels I've read in a long while...Brilliant , with its many high-class heists, carried out not with guns, knives, or bombs but with weapons of wit, will enchant and engage readers...[the] surprise ending does not disappoint. This saucy, sexy, suspenseful novel-as another one of the definitions of 'brilliant' in my dictionary says-is 'superb, wonderful.' It is not to be missed."-The Roanoke Times
"A sensual and lush romp through the rarefied world of money and power in London and a glimpse into the inner workings of a fine auction house...a fun and engaging read, well written, well plotted, with memorable characters and a concrete sense of place and time."
-The Nashville Tennessean
"Kick Keswick proves a strong, delightful, and intelligent anti-heroine as she leads the reader on a marvelous romp through London auction houses, the homes of the rich and famous, and the Provence countryside...full of fun and flare, Kick is indeed a kick, and Brilliant proves to be a gem of summer reading."-Library Journal (starred review)
"A witty, page-turner...a suspenseful account, with humor and a real sense of style."
-Kirkus Reviews
"If your tastes run to champagne and caviar...[Marne Davis Kellogg's] trademark insider's view of the lives of the very rich makes Brilliant a glittering choice for reading at the beach-or in the bathtub."-Rocky Mountain News
"The plot is complex but very smooth, the characters real and the fun continuous."
-The Daily Sentinel (Grand Junction, Colorado)
"A delicious melodrama starring a heroine who pretends to be so proper, but literally gets away with her crimes...readers will be sympathetic towards the heroine who is living life on her own terms without harming anyone."-Harriet's Book Reviews
"Brilliant is every bit as much fun as her others...the plot is complex but very smooth, the characters real and the fun continuous."--gjsentinel.com
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