{"product_id":"9780385501538","title":"Aiding and Abetting","description":"\u003cp\u003eLord Lucan was a dissolute member of the British aristocracy whose accidental murder of his children's nanny (he was trying for his wife) and puzzling disappearance created a sensation in Britain—and a tantalizing mystery as yet unsolved.  In Muriel Spark's version of Lucan's flight, his adversary is Beate Pappenheim, a fake Bavarian stigmatic who embezzled missions from devout followers before assuming a new identity as a celebrated psychiatrist.  These two inhabitants of the farther shores of morality collide memorably in her brilliant new novel, where \"aiding and abetting\" Lord Lucan's well-padded fugitive life is the name of the beastly upper-class game and a duel of wits plays out with potentially mortal consequences.  The artful murderer meets the master con-woman—who will emerge victorious?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn part a rumination on the nature of evil, in part a damning indictment of aristocratic mores, \u003ci\u003eAiding and Abetting\u003c\/i\u003e is a dark and dazzling entertainment from a writer whose clear-eyed judgements never intrude upon her narrative legerdemain.  Spark's bitingly satirical wit and seamlessly executed passages quickly undermine the readers' pat moral judgements and seduces them into a world deemed foul by normal standards.  And her game of cat and mouse will culminate in a denouement at once deeply shocking and deliciously apt.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eAiding and Abetting\u003c\/i\u003e proves beyond a doubt that Muriel Spark retains her crown as the most distinguished and entertaining moral satirist of her day.  It is literary fiction at its finest.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Doubleday Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47008458211568,"sku":"9780385501538","price":21.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780385501538_p0.gif?v=1763694989","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780385501538","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}