Red Cherry: A Novel

It’s 1974 and Washington, DC, is a dirty, dissolute place. Vicky is a teenager searching for meaning in a city that has lost its soul in the wake of the Watergate scandal. Two girls enter Vicky’s life seemingly by coincidence: A wealthy Tahitian “embassy brat” named Tita who has just arrived from Paris, and an enigmatic German waitress whose very name is a mystery.

Vicky and Tita soon become convinced the waitress is a Soviet spy. It’s a folie à deux, an obsessive game played by a pair of girls who don’t know what they’re doing. At home, Vicky’s father, a man doing mysterious work for the Navy, has a sudden obsession of his own. He is consumed by home security, and has outfitted the entire house with 24-hour surveillance. He trusts no one, not even his own family members. Is he right to suspect their loyalty?

As Vicky’s game escalates and the stakes become very real, she is pulled into an earth-shattering love affair that crosses all boundaries.

The paranoia of John le Carré blends with the delirium of V. C. Andrews in this sexy, drama-drenched, psychologically tense spy story.