Aries Rising

About the Book

Philip Castle, newly separated from an adulterous wife and afflicted by middle-age doldrums, is a professor at the University of Chicago off to the Caribbean for a relaxing vacation. But life is far from restful. His first day on the island he watches a small plane crash, piloted by a man who looks disturbingly like him. He then meets Marie-Celeste-a fabulously beautiful and provocative young woman with whom he makes love-only to find that she is the mistress of the powerful and mysterious Count Raymond de Vaucresson, who with three colleagues has made a fortune in drug-running, arms-smuggling and gambling. He may even be a murderer.

They seem ruled by astrology, and have the persuasive charm and élan of the super-rich, so even though he knows they are evil and dangerous, Castle, deeply in love, agrees to board their yacht, the Zodiac, on a trip around the Caribbean. The voyage gives the illusion of the swankiest of pleasure cruises, but the reality is one of danger, crime, and sexual depravity. When Philip discovers their real mission, he vows to stop them, but hasn't the slightest idea how to do it and the answer doesn't lie in the stars.

About the Author

Arthur Herzog is an award-winning novelist, non-fiction writer and journalist, renowned for his best-selling novels The Swarm, Orca (both made into popular movies), Make Us Happy, Heat and IQ 83, hailed by the British press as one of the best science fiction works ever written.

His non-fiction best sellers include Vesco, which Publishers Weekly hailed as "A brilliantly researched story?one of the year?s remarkable biographies" and The Woodchipper Murder. A New Yorker, avid reader, and world traveler, Herzog continues to write fiction and non-fiction books.