Anton Disclafani: The After Party , 9780399573187, paperback May 2017, available in hardback 9781594633164, Riverhead Books /Penguin Random House US, (Nach der Party, C. Bertelsmann, April 2017, 19,99)

Anton Disclafani is a female author, in case you are wondering. Her first book “The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls”, a book I greatly enjoyed, established her as a keen observer and storyteller of what happens to women who fall outside the moral codex set by rich families in the US in the Thirties.

Her latest book “After the Party” is set in the roaring Fifties in Houston/ Texas where drinks and money flow as freely as the oil wells producing these riches. Disclafani does a great job in vividly portraying Houston’s social life and party scene of the very rich.

Joan Fortier is one of the golden girls born into an extremely rich, first class Texan family. Glamorous, blond and beautiful she is the center of the Houston party scene with her childhood friend Cece Buchanan always at her side. Whereas Cece graves stability, a happy marriage and family life, Joan is more reckless and has a much wilder appetite not always in synch with the rigid rules of a Houston society scene with its debutant balls and parties. When Joan goes suddenly missing for a year and eventually returns much changed, Cece desperately tries to find out what happened to the one person she has felt closest to. The story unfolding over 368 pages of love, betrayal, scandal and friendship captivated and entertained me until the very end. Atmospheric, cleverly plotted women’s fiction of high quality.