The High Flyer [Hardcover]

"When I first saw my temporary secretary it never occurred to me to flirt with him". The bemused confidence and upended assumption of this first sentence from The High Flyer, by Susan Howatch, reveal a great deal about the character who speaks it and the shape of this novel as a whole. The narrator, Carter Graham, is a successful London lawyer--a "high flyer"--whose thoroughly secular plan for a perfect life (clothes, car, kids, etc.) is proceeding quite punctually, thanks to her strong sense of entitlement and her talent for social manipulation. The story that follows, however, undermines Carter's confident assumptions regarding the inner lives of the people around her. Carter meets and marries another high flyer, a charming business titan named Kim. Slowly, Carter learns of Kim's involvement in the occult, his Nazi past and the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of his former wife. As the mysteries of Kim's past are revealed to Carter, Kim's personality undergoes a deep and demonic transformation. Carter, terrified, seeks shelter at a Christian healing centre, where a cast of clerics and lay people help Carter reconstruct a life for herself, and a theological and psychological framework that makes some sense of the blindness and betrayal that destroyed her life with Kim. "[C]reation's not about efficiency", explains one character, "it's about love. It's about shedding blood, sweat and tears to make the thing you care about come right. It's about enduring the shadow side of creation and using it so that in the end everything can be brought into the light". The novel's greatest strength is its suspenseful plotting, which calls to mind (thanks in part to the narrator's frequent allusions to) the films of Alfred Hitchcock.. --Michael Joseph Gross

I picked up her latest, THE HIGH FLYER, and put it down only to start the preceding one. The woman's brilliant" You Magazine. "Unputdownable.hugely ambitious" Daily Express "Howatch's skills as a novelist are consummate: her characters and her contexts live.One of the bravest books I've read" Church Times --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

I picked up her latest, THE HIGH FLYER, and put it down only to start the preceding one...The woman's brilliant! (YOU MAGAZINE )

Unputdownable...hugely ambitious (DAILY EXPRESS )

Howatch's skills as a novelist are consummate: her characters and her contexts live...One of the bravest books I've read (CHURCH TIMES )

A satisfying mix of psychological thriller and spiritual drama. (GOOD HOUSEKEEPING ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

'Susan Howatch may well become the Anthony Trollope of the 20th century' --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

'Magnificent modern saga' --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

The work of a mesmerising story-teller' Daily Telegraph

* A novel of classic suspense which explores the evil embedded in our fragmented society, and focuses on the quest for healing and salvation in our chaotic post-modern world.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

A woman who thinks her life is in perfect order discovers that it is in fact going to ruin. Her husband's ex-wife is stalking her and, as her world disintegrates around her, she comes to fear for both her sanity and her life.

Susan Howatch was born in Surrey. After taking a degree in law, she emigrated to America where she married, had a daughter and embarked on a career as a writer. When she eventually left the States, she lived in the Republic of Ireland for four years before returning to England.