Bobby Steingrove is an outsider in a large Jewish family. His uncle Stanley runs a motion picture studio in Hollywood during the golden era of the 1930s, but Bobby’s father is dependent on his charity. When Bobby gets in to Yale, a new world on the East Coast opens up to him. He falls in with a moneyed clique of amoral young men from prep schools. Handsome and clever, Bobby is able to keep up with them while he loses his innocence and falls in love. After an elegant party one night in a grand house in Fifth Avenue he is willingly led into in Central Park.

   Ultimately, what happens outside in the dark that night puts Bobby’s aspirations on hold and sends him back to Los Angeles to work in his uncle’s film studio. He discovers a novel written by one of his Yale friends with a protagonist he recognizes as a disguised version of himself. The studio’s biggest star, Laura Hampshire, has also seen that book and persuades Stanley to film the novel as vehicle for her, on condition that Bobby writes the script. By accident, Bobby must take over as director and completes the project. When his past is discovered, he is cast out by his family and blacklisted in Hollywood.

   Returning to New York, Bobby seeks new opportunities to prove his talents, but it is never clear who is being seduced and by whom.

Author David Wurtzel practised at the English Bar and for several years was consultant editor of the Bar’s magazine, Counsel. His first novel, Thomas Lyster: A Cambridge Novel was published by Brilliance Books.