American Gilt

The final book of the AMERICAN GILT TRILOGY continues in 1884 as Sara Swan Whiting, once a popular d butante, finds herself disgraced by divorce, and left with a child to raise alone. An admired member of the social set she is now shunned, becoming the target of criticism by her contemporaries. Sara has a friend in Mrs. Astor, the queen of the Four Hundred, but will Mrs. Astor support Sara?

Years pass and Sara's daughter, Natica, born of the ill-fated marriage, is denied paternity by her father, Oliver Belmont, and subsequently the lineage of the powerful Belmont family. Natica grows into a lovely young woman following in the d butante footsteps of her mother. Now a society favorite, Natica is spunky and beautiful - with a striking resemblance to her father.

While Natica charms society, her father regrets their estrangement. As Natica comes of legal age she grows curious, and secretly sets off to find the facts behind her ancestry, discovering the truth of her birth father's abandonment and abuse of her mother. Oliver attempts a reconciliation with his daughter, but fate steps in - when tragedy strikes.

In the exciting finale to the AMERICAN GILT TRILOGY, readers are again transported through time to the wealth and confines of elite society during America's Gilded Age. With information gathered from family letters, historical newspapers, books and personal interviews, J. D. Peterson dramatically concludes the tale based on the true account of the Belmont-Whiting Scandal of 1883.

(Previously published as SWAN SONG TRILOGY.)