From the banks of Houston's Buffalo Bayou to the blue waters of Hawaii to the flashy, sexy world of Hollywood, SILENT WAGER tells the story of one woman's fight to uncover the truth about a deadly wager,save a family legacy and recapture the trust of her spolied, estranged daughter.
SILENT WAGER is the story of Camille and Max Granville, an African American couple with roots deeply embedded in Houston's black community. In the summer of 2001, they are hard-hit by Tropical Storm Allison, which nearly wipes out their historic home and restaurant, Vendora. Caught without insurance to cushion the blow, the Granvilles see their savings dwindle, their marriage begin to crumble, and the respect of their daughter, Jaiden, slip away with the receding flood waters.
Desperate to hold onto his livelihood and his family, Max takes a huge risk: He sells controlling interest in Vendora to a slick Los Angeles businessman, whose beautiful movie-star girlfriend, Lara Stanton, turns out to be a dangerous, unwitting accomplice. The bet looks good on the surface, but it soon takes a disastrous turn when Max is killed, leaving Camille to uncover the truth about a wager conducted in silence -- initiating a cascading series of events that threatens Camille, Jaiden, Lara and the future of Vendora.
Sexy -- Risky -- Compelling to the end -- SILENT WAGER, captures the passion, danger, and emotional turmoil of the aftermath of those perilous days of the summer of 2001.
Excerpt
Pewter gray clouds clutched the Houston skyline, blocking the sun completely. Dark and mean, they stretched from the rooftop of the Enron building to the Fox Television satellite tower far beyond the Galleria. At street level, swirling pools of dark water swamped underpasses and low-lying neighborhoods, forcing morning commuters to abandon their cars and climb onto the hoods of their vehicles to wait for the water to recede. After three soggy days of non-stop rain, the storm showed no signs of easing.
Camille Granville studied the grim tableau from the rain-splattered, third floor window of Vendora, the mansion-turned supper club that she and her husband, Max, were trying to protect. Three inches of rain an hour, she recalled the weather report, drumming her fingers on the window sill, distressed to see that the sandbags stacked along the southern edge of the property had already been breached. Muddy brown water spewed over the make-shift barrier and slapped hard at the double French doors at the rear of the house. She thought about the ancient hardwood floors downstairs, the heirloom tapestry wall coverings, and the woodcarvings done by Max's great-grandfather that embellished the solid oak windowsills and doorframes: All would be ruined, she realized, overcome by a sense of helplessness.
Zara’s Bois:
When the powers-that-be make the decision to return a selfish party-girl to Earth on three missions of redemption, can romance and mayhem be far behind? One hot and trendy gay nightclub, two bickering angels and three unlikely p
