Works by Cristina Alger

Worlds collide when an FBI agent investigates a string of grisly murders on Long Island that raises the impossible question: What happens when the primary suspect is your father?

FBI Agent Nell Flynn and her father, Homicide Detective Martin Flynn, have never had much of a relationship. Her mother, Marisol was brutally murdered when Nell was just seven. When Martin dies in a motorcycle accident, Nell returns to the house she grew up in. At the behest of her father’s partner, Detective Lee Davis, Nell becomes involved in an investigation into the murders of two young Hispanic women in Suffolk County. The further Nell digs, the more likely it seems to her that her father should be the prime suspect–and that his friends on the police force are covering his tracks. Plagued by doubts about her mother’s murder, and her own role in exonerating her father in that case, Nell can’t help but ask questions. But she doesn’t like the answers she finds, not just about those she loves, but about herself.

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When a private plane bound for Geneva simply drops off the radar, its wreckage is later uncovered in the Alps. Among the missing is Matthew Lerner, a banking insider at Swiss United, a powerful offshore bank. His young widow, Annabel, is left grappling with the secrets he left behind, including an encrypted laptop and a shady client list. As she begins a desperate search for answers, she determines that Matthew’s death was no accident–and she is now in the crosshairs of his powerful enemies.

Meanwhile, ambitious society journalist Marina Tourneau has finally landed at the top, engaged to be married into a powerful family. Her entry into the upper echelons of New York’s social scene is more appealing than any article could ever be, but after the death of her mentor, she agrees to write just one more story. While looking into Swiss United, Marina uncovers intriguing information that implicates the financial world’s most powerful men, including some who are too close to home. The story could also be the answer to Annabel’s heartbreaking search–if Marina chooses to publish it.

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After marrying Merrill Darling, daughter of billionaire financier Carter Darling, attorney Paul Ross has grown accustomed to New York society and all of its luxuries: a Park Avenue apartment, weekends in the Hamptons, bespoke suits. When Paul loses his job, his powerful father-in-law offers him the chance to head the legal team at his hedge fund. Thrilled with his good fortune in the midst of the worst financial downturn since the Great Depression, Paul accepts the position.

But Paul’s luck is about to shift: a tragic event catapults the Darling family into the media spotlight, a regulatory investigation, and a red-hot scandal. Suddenly, Paul must decide where his loyalties lie. Will he save himself while betraying his wife and in-laws? Or protect the family business at all costs?

Cristina Alger’s glittering debut novel interweaves the narratives of the Darling family, two eager SEC attorneys, and a team of journalists all racing to uncover–or cover up–the truth.  The Darlings offers an irresistible glimpse into the highest echelons of New York society-a world seldom seen by outsiders, in this fast-paced thriller of epic proportions.

Charlie Goldwyn’s life hasn’t exactly gone according to plan. Widowed at thirty-three and twelve-hour workdays have left a gap in his relationship with his quirky five-year-old son, Caleb, whose obsession with natural disasters and penchant for girls’ clothing have made him something of a loner at his preschool. The only thing Charlie has going for him is his job at a prestigious law firm, where he is finally close to becoming a partner. But when a slight lapse in judgment at an office party leaves him humiliatingly unemployed, stuck at home with Caleb for the summer, and forced to face his own estranged father, Charlie starts to realize that there’s more to fatherhood than financially providing for his son. He also learns there is more to being a son than overtaking his father’s successes.