They are Sydney's golden ones. Young, rich, well-bred and well-connected. Now peel away that glossy surface ...and stand well back. This gripping mystery set among Sydney's elite is a devastating portrait of money and power; of a charismatic young man with an elastic moral code; of lifelong friendship betrayed; of subtle cruelties and brutal pragmatism. Hugh Bowman is heir to a considerable fortune. Richard, his friend from childhood, observes Hugh with alternating devotion and rage -- though mostly devotion. While as adults Hugh and his wife Helen, and Richard and his wife Pup, continue the tradition of holidays at Palm Beach every year and give every appearance of leading the golden lives of the rich, there are secrets and intrigues among them that will blow their world apart ...Malcolm Knox's writing is as seductive and alluring as his glamorous and obscenely wealthy subjects. This is a first novel of smouldering power that offers tantalising and disturbing insights into the world of the so-called privileged elite.