Bonfire of the Vanderbilts: A Novel

Gerald Everett Jones

Sep 2018 · LaPuerta Books and Media

About this ebook

From the acclaimed author of 2020 Independent Press Awards Distinguished Favorites Clifford's Spiral and Preacher Finds a Corpse. In 1892 Paris, Julius Stewart painted The Baptism, a Vanderbilt family scene that contains an embarrassing secret. In the present day, art historian Grace Atwood becomes obsessed with the painting and its hidden clues for reasons that have more to do with her personal ghosts. Either her doting husband is trying to make her think she’s crazy, or she really is in the early stages of dementia.

The author says, "Since this book was released, my whitepaper, "Deconstructing the Scandalous Narrative of The Baptism" was featured in the Fall 2016 issue of the prestigious Journal of Art Crime. Readers are curious (as am I), and art curators are not telling, what will happen next in the real-world mystery behind this painting."

About the author

Gerald Everett Jones is a freelance writer who lives in Santa Monica, California, with his wife--actress-comedienne, writer, and animal activist Georja Umano--and two Jack Russell Terrorists, Roxie and Romeo. Bonfire of the Vanderbilts is his sixth novel. Before concentrating primarily on fiction, he authored, coauthored, or ghost-wrote more than thirty business and technical books, including How to Lie with Charts. That book has become a classic for college-level courses in business math, and Jones has conducted seminars on the topic of honesty in financial presentations. He expounded on his notions of male-centered humor in his collection of short stories, Boychik Lit, which includes an essay in which he nominates novelist and poet Peter De Vries as the father of the genre. Jones authored the boychik-lit series of Rollo Hemphill's comic misadventures: My Inflatable Friend, Rubber Babes, and Farnsworth's Revenge. His next novel was Mr. Ballpoint, a father-son comedy based on the true story of the Pen Wars of 1945. Christmas Karma is his homage to Anne Tyler, whom he regards as his literary mother (John Le Carré being the father). Jones is a member of the Writers Guild of America, the Dramatists Guild, Women's National Book Association, and Film Independent (FIND), as well as a past director of the Independent Writers of Southern California (IWOSC). He holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honors from the College of Letters, Wesleyan University, where he studied under novelists Peter Boynton (Stone Island), F.D. Reeve (The Red Machines), and Jerzy Kozinski (The Painted Bird, Being There). He blogs at www.boychiklit.com. He is a top reviewer on Goodreads.com and hosts a regular book review segment on KRLA 870 AM radio in Los Angeles. His reviews are also published on the Web by Splash Magazines Worldwide.