The Bad Seed : Omnibus - The Night Book and Soon

Now combined into a major TV drama, these two connected novels by award-winning writer Charlotte Grimshaw take an unflinching look at politics and power, contemporary New Zealand society and the arid morality of the privileged.

In The Night Book, doctor and party donor Simon Lampton is drawn to Roza Hallwright, though he cant quite put his finger on why. She leads a quiet, comfortable, orderly life with her politician husband David and her two stepchildren. But this peaceful existence is about to be changed forever. In the next few months there will be an election, and, if the polls are correct, Roza will become the Prime Minister's wife. She is relatively calm about the prospect, but meeting Simon will bring turmoil to both their lives.In Soon, the Lampton family has come to spend a long hot summer at the Hallwright's large beach house. The weather is perfect and outwardly all is well, but the harmony is disturbed when Simon Lampton's brother Ford arrives for a visit. Ford casts a cold eye over the company, barely disguising his contempt for David Hallwright. While Roza tells her young son made-up stories that reveal uncomfortable truths about their current lives, Simon will tell stories that conceal the truth about his.Gripping, clever and moving, these two novels are an intensely humane look at the choices people make.