The Lodger

A sterling psychological novel about jealousy and greed in an explosive combination.A dubious business venture brings the dark, elegantly dressed Elias Nagear from sunshine-filigreed Istanbul to Brussels, a city of gloomy skies. The gloom extends to the venture, which never takes off the ground. Elias soon finds himself ill and penniless, all but abandoned by his curvaceous and lustful companion, Sylvie Baron. Sylvie, it seems, has focused her sights on a supremely confident and opulent Antwerp shipowner nicknamed Van der Boomp. Elias, consumed with illness and uncontrolled passion, is driven to a desperate act that will leave him psychologically on the run.This is a tense, dramatic, richly textured story by a writer who knows well that human frailty can be be both a cause and an effect.from jacket flap