The Crowded Bed

"Good evening, dear friend. I’m extremely pleased to see you but I’m sure you’ll understand why I can’t give you my full attention. Joe Fortune is just about to kill his father-in-law and I’ve no intention of missing this long awaited event."

Joe Fortune, a Jewish GP, has been married to Anna, his Aryan beauty, for twenty years. Their relationship sustained with great passion and happiness, but in the shadows of their lives, dark secrets are hidden. Joe has long nurtured a desire to murder Gordon, Anna’s father; a motive born of past events involving revenge, mutual hatred, and Gordon’s deep prejudice for Joe’s Judaism.

"If you wrong us, shall we not seek revenge?"

Unknown to Joe, Anne, too, is hiding deep painful secrets. Thus, in a highly charged expose the reader is led back and forth over the changing face of the last century to discover love, lies, sex, religion, infidelity, cruelty and violence. While the powerful Joe is revealed as angry and resentful, Anna’s quiet dignity disclosures her own extraordinary and shocking revelations.

"The pain became a habit; a way of life like a little ghost that sat on my shoulder."

‘The Crowded Bed is a skilfully complex, psychological piece full of high drama and murky secrets’ - The Oxford Times

‘This funny and dramatic first novel about the darkest of family secrets begins with Joe Fortune, a charismatic Jewish doctor, killing his father-in-law. Joe has good reasons for wanting Gordon dead – better reasons than your average murderer. The sanity of his adored wife, Anna, a fragile Botticelli blonde, may depend on it. Meanwhile, Joe must decide exactly how Jewish he wants to be. It is a tall story, but is told so artfully that there are genuine surprises’ - The Times, 17 March 2007