La Ronde
A Novella
A Park Avenue woman puts a price on her brutish husband’s head. Asks her Jersey girlfriend for help. Girlfriend talks to connected brother. Brother talks to his accountant and lover, who talks to her other lover, a movie producer who tells his glam wife back in L.A., who tells her personal trainer while getting a massage. The personal trainer mentions it to his boyfriend who is in money trouble. The boyfriend hypes the price on the husband’s head to get the loan shark off his back, after the guy breaks his leg. The loan shark flies to New York to hire a hit man cheap. Is out-foxed by hit man’s hot sister. Back to the husband with a price on his head . . .
PRAISE & REVIEWS
Try putting La Ronde down after you’ve begun to read–not possible. It sweeps you up into a beguiling tale of greed, mistaken identity, and desire. Townsend Walker has crafted a chilling novella with characters that pop off the page and events that will make you squirm…a tale of greed and desire that will make you wonder…what would your spouse do if he or she wanted to kill you?
—Diane Lake, screenwriter of the Academy Award winning Frida.
La Ronde is a fast-paced, darkly comic, and compulsively readable carousel of a novella. This is a motley, memorable cast of characters indeed, as well as one fantastic joy ride of a plot. So hold on and enjoy.
—Skip Horack, author of The Other Joseph, The Eden Hunter, and The Southern Cross
In La Ronde, Townsend Walker has written a wonderfully original novella. Twelve adult characters play what we used to call “Tag,” except the stakes are marriages and money. It’s a romp, but it’s also a fresh look at our society.
—Nancy Packer, author of Old Ladies
La Ronde is a novella based on the 1950 movie of the same name. Think of it as The Sopranos on steroids. No, it’s probably closer to early Guy Ritchie films such as Snatch, Revolver, or Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. The point is it’s rapid-fire mugs and molls with enough swank scenery and gaudy jewelry thrown in to make the malevolent goings-on malleable. Author Townsend Walker employs a sprinters pace by channeling Andrew Vachss’ prose style minus the bone-crunching metaphors. In fact, the entire story is whisked out in a mere seventy pages. Think of it as contemporary crime in the drive-thru lane.
—Joe Kilgore, author of Sin and Sombreros, The Golden Dancer and The Blunder