The novel that launched Settle's outstanding career, The Love Eaters is an acid satire of bedroom and community tragedy. A wealthy, small-town theatrical group finds itself at the direction of a wheelchair-bound man whose designs extend beyond the stage. As he begins to lose control, so do his players, revealing appetites they scarcely knew that had. The Kiss of Kin, Settle's second and highly acclaimed novel, centers on the funeral, and last testament of Anna Mary Passmore. Drawn back to the Soutern homeplace, members of the Passmore clan-all of whom nurse visions that the matriarch's bequests will solve their problems-grapple with the various ties that bind them and with the disturbing appearance of an unexpected heir. Pulbished together for the first time, these novels offer compelling tales as well as a sample of Settle's early writing.