Plot
Amid the walls of an opulent mansion the adult children of the fractious and dysfunctional Darmoody family gather to the bedside of their frail and sickly father for what may be his final months. Jesse Darmoody, the youngest and most morally conscious and emotionally clean, of the family is bordering on the bliss of life's new journey as he escapes his family home and heads to university. The forlorn state that seeps into him upon hearing the news of his father's latest heart attack seems as much about the thought of returning to the home and family he has just escaped as it is about his father's failing health. Jesse's older siblings, their dim but decorative partners, trophy wives and the rest of the extended family are an ungodly bunch of apples, all in one way or another rotten at their core; A select group of deeply charmless individuals and slippery bastards either permanently unemployed and in desperate need of cash, beset by drinking problems and drug addictions, as well as a severe array of ubiquitous 'daddy' issues. They sit morosely scowling round the sick bed like a bunch of vultures seemingly waiting for the old man to die. Only Jesse's return brings light and a breath of life back to his father. It being no real secret that he's his father's favourite child, as well as the fact that Tobias Darmoody, is a staunch believer that his snivelling morally defunct set of offspring should make their own way in the world without use of any of his riches, Jesse is only mildly surprised when his older brother Freddie breaks the news that the family inheritance leaves him enough to afford a college education and the remainder of his relatives nothing but scratchings from the family pot. Clearly accustomed to having been kicked around by his elder relatives all his life, Jesse is less than shocked when they break to him the news of a plot they've hatched in a last ditch attempt to get their hands on their father's millions before he croaks. However even Jesse couldn't have imagined that his siblings would have dreamed up a con involving them staging his faked kidnapping and extorting a six figured ransom for his safe return. A ransom to then be shared among them equally and fund their high spending slacker life-styles. Initially outraged by what he is being coerced into Jesse rejects the idea. However the one chink in his armour, Ruri Lim, the alluring, bewitching, half-hellion daughter of the Darmoody's long term hired help applies some fairly relentless arm twisting and sultry manipulation and soon Jesse finds himself succumbing to their scheme and his own personal collision course with fate. Without any relevant criminal experience Jesse questions how his scheming siblings would carry out their grotty little plot, his questions answered with the sickening realisation that Ruri's fiancé, Cody Bunting, will be the man orchestrating the nefarious proceedings. With this news Jesse's part in his family's conspiracy begins an immediate descent on a downward spiral into an abyss of unshakable dread for he knows only too well that Ruri's, coldly smiling boyfriend is nothing short of a cold blooded sociopath; bleak, cruel, brutal and monstrous, and his agreement to his own abduction feels more like his consent to his own murder. The all-pervading sense of doom hangs heavy in the air for Jesse within the dark rooms and quiet corners of the Darmoody mansion as he awaits his fate. And when Jesse's appointment with fate does arrive, things soon go horribly, homicidally wrong, for the frail and sickly paterfamilias, awakened by the three masked intruders in his home, gathers his strength and makes one tragic attempt to protect his youngest child. With Tobias's weak effort to rescue his son resulting in his own 'slightly sooner than expected' death, and Jesse holed away in a dreadful lonely place without food or water and a ransom that can now never be paid, the Darmoody children are left to realise that their failings, greed and flawed twisted plan have betrayed their brother, potentially sealed his fate and come back to haunt them in the worst possible way. As Jesse hangs between life and death, each colossally bad decision by the Darmoody family lead to another, already weak relationships are tested and loyalties start to drastically shift. Caught in the pitiless trap, Jesse has no option but to go to inhuman lengths to come to his own salvation. However his attempts are shrouded by a miasma of evil in the form of Cody Bunting who, with masterly cunning, endeavours to ensure that the 'perfect plan' still goes his way. But just as fate can turn one way, it can also turn another, and the final twist pits the mercilessly brutal against the gently intelligent and fate proves to be more than ironic, one last time.

Keywords: british, greed, hitchcock, kidnapping

Plot
It's the early nineteenth century Washington. Young adult Margaret O'Neal - Peggy to most that know her - is the daughter of Major William O'Neal, who is the innkeeper of the establishment where most out-of-town politicians and military men stay when they're in Washington. Peggy is pretty and politically aware. She is courted by several of those politicians and military men who all want to marry her, except for the one with who she is truly in love. Because of her personal situation at the time, she, in 1828, becomes the unofficial first lady to help her old friend - "old" both in terms of age and length of time - Andrew Jackson, who has just been elected President of the United States. Jackson and Peggy have the same political outlook, where the union of the states is paramount, especially when many states see their rights as being more important than the union. Jackson had a rough ride during the election in large part because his wife, Rachel Jackson, was seen as a pipe smoking hayseed, unfit to live in the White House. On her deathbed, Rachel asked Peggy to take care of Jackson. Peggy, as unofficial first lady, gets as rough a ride as Rachel did, because of her own marital status and the undue influence she may assert over Jackson. Because of her relationship with Jackson, Peggy has to decide which of the conflicting issues of her political convictions, being with the man she truly loves or respectability is of greatest priority in her life.

Keywords: andrew-jackson, based-on-novel, dancing, gossip, innkeeper, marriage, marriage-proposal, martin-van-buren, murder, party