James Cortese: 4 books

What were the women of the Bible really like?Eve’s smooth-talking snake. Delilah’s haircut.Jezebel ‘s bad rap. Mary’s family drama. Themen had their say, but a story always has twosides if we just know where to look.

When Melodie Baine takes the elevator, why does it entirely leave the building? Why does a Wizard of Oz head keep appearing in Grace Hearthstone’s bed- room? Why would Purvis Waddell want to exorcise his teenage daughter? At New York’s most exclusive address, celebrity residents are dying in horrible ways, and soon the media is calling it Freak House.

From the precocious adolescent seducing Father Dauphinais while confessing her sins, to the legendary L.A. photographer touring the environs of the Hotel Paradiso with Henry L. Mencken, Zoe’s account is one woman’s erotic and spiritual journey through the last half of the 20th century, as she...

With the dot-com bubble in full swing, a high-flying software tycoon can't quite decide if the man he killed has taken over his body or he's just insane. Or maybe the answer is in a 1930s sci-fi novel that isn't a novel at all, but an alien instruction manual.