The Monsters of Gramercy Park

by Danny Leigh (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2006

  $3.42

  Lizbeth Greene is a celebrated crime novelist with writer's block. Wilson Velez is the imprisoned leader of the Sacred Incan Royals, a Latino gang, who has just emerged from five years spent in solitary confinement. When Lizbeth decides to write a book about Wilson, she begins to visit him in prison and, as the relationship grows, they both find themselves becoming increasingly dependent on each other. The Monsters of Gramercy Park is a fantastically original and spellbinding novel at the centre of which is a wholly compelling and electrifying relationship. Full of twists and turns, it leaves the reader guessing until the very last page.

• Used

  Paperback
  2005

  $6.13

  Danny Leigh's new novel brings together two disparate characters: Wilson Velez, a gang lord in solitary confinement, slowly losing his mind and Lizbeth Greene, a celebrated crime novelist, whose inspiration is beginning to run dry. When Lizbeth decides that writing a book about Velez could revivify her ailing career, she begins to visit him in prison. Gradually, she becomes drawn into Wilson's dark world and the pair engage in a complex and fascinating dance of attraction and rejection: Lizbeth needs Wilson to kick-start her career; Wilson needs Lizbeth to get out of solitary confinement. Laced through the narrative is a children's book - called 'The Monsters of Gramercy Park' - which mirrors the increasingly intimate and dangerous relationship between Lizbeth and Velez. With material reminiscent of the literary true-crime classics such as Truman Capote's In Cold Blood and Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song. Danny Leigh has created a dark and compelling novel that is also a tender love story.