I won’t succumb. None of this has happened, I tell myself, not yet. I’m still at my chair, at the desk. I raise the glass to my lips and take a drink. I hear the noise below and walk toward the balcony. I make note but ignore the sound out in the hall, the crescendo of rushing feet. The moonlight falls over me, and the men fall into a hush. I am beautiful, I am ugly. I am anything you want. But I am not contrite. The moment collapses into itself, and somewhere in the depths of that instant, I tell myself I will not die. I see my escape. I wander past the terrace wall to the Avenida. And from there to the empty pampas beyond.

Author’s Note

Though contemporary in its setting, this novel borrows many elements from John Webster’s older play (1612) of the same title, which itself was a reimagination of the true story of a young woman and her brother implicated in a notorious double murder in Rome.

About the Author

Domenic Stansberry is The Edgar Award winning author of ten novels and a collection of stories. His North Beach Mystery Series has won wide praise for its portrayal of the ethnic and political subcultures of San Francisco. Books from that series include The Ancient Rain, named several years after its original publication as one of the best crime of novels of the decade by Booklist. An earlier novel, The Confession, received the Edgar Allan Poe Award for its controversial portrait of a Marin County psychologist accused of murdering his mistress. Stansberry grew up in the San Francisco area and currently lives with his wife, the poet Gillian Conoley, and their daughter Gillis in a small town north of that city.

The Confession is also available in e-book from Molotov Editions.  The opening chapters are available at the end of this e-book.

You can reach Domenic on twitter @shotndarknews

About the Publisher

If you would like to comment on this novel, both the author and the publisher would appreciate your doing so, at the place where you bought this novel, or anywhere you read and talk about books. We are a small, in-house press, a studio imprint, and very grateful for your business—and love thoughtful reaction to our books.

In edition to e-book re-issues, we publish original trade and hard cover books as well, including limited first editions, signed and numbered.  Our books have received numerous awards in independent fiction, including the Hoffer Prize, the Lyra Award, and Foreword’s Indie Book of the year.

Most recently,  Stansberry’s The White Devil received the North American Hammett Prize from the International Association of Crime Writers.  A sneak preview of that book is available in this e-book.

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