The welcoming committee - Imogen De La Bere

A twentieth-century Faust, musician turned wine merchant, Crawford Hollander has done well from his deal with the devil. Successful, charming, surrounded by a circle of adoring women, he has cajoled, manipulated and cheated his way to riches. But Crawford has also accumulated enemies. On his return to his native New Zealand, three men are waiting for him. They have formed the Welcoming Committee, and have prepared a very special form of revenge.

Crawford is the most complex and most magnificent of Imogen de la Bere's villains, and the novel through which he struts is her best - gripping, funny and deliciously tolerant of human frailty.