When Alice Mercer bumps into rising Wall Street attorney, Jack Preston, he promises himself to wipe this stunning beauty out of his memory. Life is complicated enough in 1950's America, where virginity holds sway over daydreams. Dare this woman jeopardize his promise to marry his wholesome sweetheart? But Alice won't go away, and after treating him to ringside seats, this French industrial spy trained in the womanly arts by the finest madam in Hanoi takes Jack on a lovemaking tour de force requiring only disclosure of his clients' names-a petty price to pay until he is arrested for insider trading. And so Jack begins a descent into hell, where revelations of shocking bedroom activity turn his trial into fodder for a ravenous public whipped into frenzy by the tabloid media. Will Alice use her steamy knowhow to save the day? Jack never stops believing. Peter Hoffmann was born and raised in New York City, where he attended Brooklyn College. After receiving his MD degree from New York Medical College, he received postdoctoral training in pathology at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, where he specialized in premalignant diseases of the breast. He currently lives with his wife and son in Westchester County. Carnal Weapon is his first novel. "Peter Hoffman has skillfully and painstakingly recreated the grey flannel world of the 1950s in New York City, a more 'innocent' world, in which sex and betrayal go hand in hand. The mess Jack Preston finds himself in as a result of giving in to his passions, will keep you reading well into the night." -Charles Salzberg, author of Swann's Last Song Cover art: Cameron K. Lewis