Saffron by Starlight: A Novel

In the sunny, affluent little town of Lamberton, Rachel Donovan's stately old mansion sits high on top of a hill overlooking the sleepy valley below. Her husband Mike comes home from a long day of plotting and planning-as the chief architect of Lamberton's gentrification, he keeps a watchful eye on everything that's going on. The last thing he wants is to have his life's work fall into the hands of the ones who took down nearby Lincoln, just two towns away. But the threat is very real, and Mike's been distracted lately, feeling his age while satisfying his insatiable desire for young women, and Rachel, bored, lonely, and feeling unwanted, finds love-and fun-in the least likely places with the least likely people. Manipulated by a hidden society of freewheeling hedonists and cavalier drunks, they encounter a series of unexpected, life-altering situations... and depending on what they do, what steps they take, and who they go to bed with, Lamberton may never be the same again.

Playful, cynical, nostalgic, part dark comedy, part unlikely romance, Saffron by Starlight takes the reader through middle America with an assortment of characters not easily forgotten, from dusty prison towns and the dive bars of skid row to five-star resorts and lavish country clubs where the elite laugh and play. It's about money and sex, power and privilege, reflecting the time it was written, from 2016 to 2020, one of the most turbulent periods in recent history.

STRONG LANGUAGE, DRUG USE, SEXUAL SITUATIONS

Raymond Young published the fanzine Magick Theatre from 1976 to 1986. Between 1995 and 2015, his essays on film, music and books appeared online at Flickhead. His novella, No Love for Eros, was published in 2017.