In 1970s Los Angeles, everyone is fighting to reach the top, but very few have the talent, ambition, and luck to get there.
THE SUNSET CROWD
by Karin Tanabe
St. Martin’s Press, July 2023
Fame. Fortune. Love. You can’t have them all.
Meet L.A. darling Evra Scott. The daughter of an Oscar-winning director and a Brazilian bombshell actress, Evra is the city’s reigning style queen. By day, she’s at the helm of Sunset on Sunset, the store beloved by Hollywood’s young and beautiful. By night, she’s on the arm of Kai de la Faire, Hawaii’s hottest export, and the screenwriter of the moment.
Enter Theodora Leigh. The twenty-something Paramount assistant looks like a big screen star, but her sights are firmly set behind the scenes, as she fights to become a movie producer in a town where sex and sexism sell. Theodora’s got the talent and instincts, but she’s not willing to wait. Luckily, getting ahead by any means necessary is L.A.’s mantra.
Observing it all is Bea Dupont, a photographer for Rolling Stone and Vogue, who never misses the party, but always keeps to its fringes. A Manhattan blue blood turned West Coast bohemian, Bea holds Evra’s Sunset crowd together. She’s also Kai’s oldest friend, and she’s harbored a not-so-secret flame for him since they met at an elite Swiss boarding school.
But in Hollywood, no one stays on top forever. And it’s not long before Theodora’s unrelenting ambition sets in motion a dramatic quest for power in an industry that is as glamorous as it is duplicitous.
From the pulsating Sunset Strip to the French Riviera, Tanabe’s new novel is a story of survival and reinvention, of faking it until you make it, and the glittering appeal of wealth and power, as it seeks to answer that timeless question—who gets to have the American dream?
Karin Tanabe is the author of several novels, including A Woman of Intelligence, A Hundred Suns and The Gilded Years (soon to be a major motion picture starring Zendaya, who will produce alongside Reese Witherspoon/Hello Sunshine). A former Politico reporter, her writing has also been featured in The Washington Post, Miami Herald, Chicago Tribune, and Newsday. She has appeared as a celebrity and politics expert on Entertainment Tonight, CNN, and CBS Early Show. A graduate of Vassar College, Karin lives in Washington, DC.
Katharina Edgeworth seems to have the perfect life. She is the daughter of immigrants, Ivy-League-educated, and speaks four languages. As a single girl in 1940s Manhattan, she is employed as a translator at the newly formed United Nations, devoting her days to her work and the promise of world peace—and her nights to cocktails and the promise of a good time. Now, in 1954 Katharina has the ideal husband, two healthy sons, and enjoys the luxuries of Fifth Avenue; but she is desperate to break free from the constraints of domesticity before depression breaks her for good. When the FBI approaches her to become an informant, Katharina seizes the opportunity. A man from her past has become a high-level Soviet spy, but no one has been able to infiltrate his circle. Enter Katharina, the perfect woman for the job. Navigating the demands of the FBI and the secrets of the KGB, she becomes a courier, carrying stolen government documents from Washington D.C. to Manhattan. But as those closest to her lose their covers, and their lives, Katharina’s secret—which fills her with purpose and reignites her self-worth––soon threatens to ruin her. With the fast-paced twists of a classic spy thriller, a celebration of post-war New York City, and a nuanced depiction of the complexity of motherhood, A WOMAN OF INTELLIGENCE shimmers with Tanabe’s trademark acerbic wit, attention to historical detail, and sharp understanding of human desire.