Harold Robbins

"The man on the other end of the phone should have been dead. Sir Henri Lipton, wanted on three continents for looting and smuggling art and precious antiquities, had destroyed Madison Dupre's career before supposedly kicking the bucket. Dupre, a drop-dead gorgeous art investigator, had hoped he was burning in hell. With her reputation in shreds, her bank accounts empty, and creditors pounding down her door, Dupre has not choice but to listen. Twenty-thousand-dollars cash--upfront--just for a little trip to Dubai, he tells her, a quick look at a piece of art. And the art is two thousand years old and was "buried with Christ." Dupre is hooked ... even though her gut tells her there has to be a catch"--Inside cover.

Solly Spaeth is a financier whose machinations with the "Ohippi Hydro-Electric Project" have left a number of people much less wealthy than once they were, including his business partner, Rhys Jardin. Jardin's beautiful daughter Valerie is involved with Spaeth's son Walter. Rhys is so impoverished, he has to sell up his personal property at auction, much to the dismay of his daughter and his long-time servant/valet/trainer, Pink. Walter asks Ellery Queen to sit in on the auction and buy every lot, which is how Ellery becomes involved when Solly Spaeth is found pierced by an ancient sword whose blade has been coated with molasses and cyanide. Suspicion falls on a number of people, including the Jardin household, Solly's son, lawyer and his mistress, the kooky Winni Moon, but Ellery works through alibis and motives and traces the crime back to the murderer. A sub-plot of the novel is that Ellery has been hired to work on a screenplay and has been completely idle for weeks because he can't get in to see studio head Jacques Butcher; Butcher plays a much more prominent role in the next novel, The Four of Hearts.

Escaping his political opponents in a Crimean resort town, disgraced Israeli politician Baruch Kotler runs into a former friend who had him sent to the gulag forty years prior and must reconcile with his betrayer and his own poor choices.

Returning to his years in Hollywood with Howard Hughes and Universal Studios, his travels through Cannes, Rome, Paris, Rio, the Caribbean, and the Far East, living with and writing about the most ruthless power brokers of our time, Robbins vividly portrays our eternal obsession with greed, desire, and blind ambition. The Predators take you on a wild odyssey through the gaudy and reckless life of Jerry Cooper: his struggles to survive in Depression-era New York; his years in Europe during the Second World War; his friends, his lovers, his life in organized crime; and his entrance into the world of high-powered international business.

Jack Lear is a predator driven by unbridled ambition. He makes a great fortune as a pioneering radio and television broadcaster, founds a network, and marries two beautiful socialites, but despite his conquests he continues to hunger for what he cannot have - the social respectability of old money. The women in his life are legion. His first marriage is to an exquisitely beautiful and shrewd WASP princess who turns him from the wealthy son of a Jewish scrap metal king into an elegant man, surrounded by tasteful trappings of wealth; his second marriage is to a lovely English aristocrat of impeccable lineage and sophisticated style, who introduces him to international high society. But nothing can ever tame Jack Lear's need to succeed, to overcome his enemies and rivals, to expand his network - until, finally, a threat from where he least expects it promises to tear his beloved empire out of his hands...

The "piranhas" are not only the dangerous fish that lurk under the calm surface of the Amazon River-- they are also the men and women whose greed, immorality and amorality feed on the fabric of society; not only those who run the illegal machinations of the Mafia and the worldwide drug trade that controls the shadow governments of many countries, but also those who live in the more "respectable" world of finance, banking, and Wall Street, and who fleece the innocent of their savings in order to gobble up big businesses and whole industries.--WorldCat From sensational New York Times bestselling author Harold Robbins comes his toughest and most compelling novel in years--a dazzling exploration of cold ambition and unrestrained lust. From the ruthless dealings of global drug lords to the corporate savagery of Wall Street's hustlers, the Piranhas are those hungry, vicious, men and women whose greed is all-consuming--and whose power is deadly.--LibraryThing**

They were two men bound together by their daring, their vision—and their erotic power over women. Racecar driver Angelo Perino rose from an immigrant family to a life on the razor's edge, where fast cars and faster women were his for the taking. Loren Hardeman is the titular head of a giant automotive empire-and of a family sliding into decadence, adultery, and destruction. In the face of opposition from Hardeman's bitter grandson-the current president of the company-the patriarch and the driver conspire to build the world's most advanced automobile. They call it "The Betsy," after Hardeman's great-granddaughter -one of the women who has also caught Perino's eye. From Detroit to the lavish estates of Grosse Pointe, Miami, and the Riviera, the pair of men work to create their wonder car. To achieve their dream, they will risk everything they have. The inspiration for the 1978 film of the same name, The Betsy explores the shocking world of the automobile industry-of savage ambition, searing passion, and breathtaking fortunes won or lost in a desperate struggle for power."

The story of a millionaire who was soft enough to buy a stricken film company because of one woman, and hard enough to make more millions after she died. The story of the girl he made into a star, of the heroes he bought and sold. The story of Hollywood at its most flamboyant, and big business at its biggest. The Carpetbaggers is full of sharply drawn characters who seek endlessly for power and love. Their sins are as great as their successes, and Harold Robbins leaves nothing of their lives and loves uncovered.

Diogenes Alejandro Xenos (DAX) is the man every man wants to be and the man every woman wants to be with. Follow his rise from genteel poverty to jet setting around the world. Sprinkled with glamorous women, gratuitous sex, and a tad of violence, you have a microcosm of the 60's international "beautiful people".

From sensational New York Times bestselling author Harold Robbins comes his toughest and most compelling novel in years--a dazzling exploration of cold ambition and unrestrained lust. From the ruthless dealings of global drug lords to the corporate savagery of Wall Street's hustlers, the Piranhas are those hungry, vicious, men and women whose greed is all-consuming--and whose power is deadly.LibraryThing**