Crackling with eroticism and suspense, the seductive new book that everyone is talking about probes the secret world of phone sex and one woman who becomes empowered by what she discovers there. Not since Erica Jong's Fear of Flying has a novel so masterfully mined the relationship between sexuality and identity. On the surface, Julia Sterling's life seems blessed. Married to a renowned psychiatrist and living on Manhattan's tony Upper East Side, Julia deeply loves her stepson and is forging a career as a journalist. When a writing job exposes her to the world of phone sex, Julia glimpses a world that stirs her erotic fantasies but threatens her carefully constructed reality. As she explores her emotional and sexual connections to the men she knows and several she will never meet, she confronts evil, perversity, and her own passions. Tracing the currents of desire, illusion, and psychological manipulation, Lip Service is an astonishingly vivid glimpse into one woman's inner life. At the same time, this electrifying thriller grips the reader as it builds toward a shattering climax. M.J. Rose has delivered a debut novel unlike anything yet experienced in erotic fiction. Lip Service establishes her as a powerful storyteller.

Dr. Morgan Snow is a well-known sex therapist with a prestigious clinic devoted to the psychology of sex. One of her patients, Cleo, is a beautiful, cultured prostitute who runs her own call-girl business. Cleo has been coming to Dr. Snow because she's fallen in love, but is unable to have a healthy sexual relationship. One day, Cleo arrives with a manuscript for a tell-all book....and then disappears. A serial killer has been at work in the city, and Detective Noah Jordan turns to Morgan Snow to find out more about the psychology of a sexual murderer. Both Morgan and Noah suspect there is a link between the serial killer and Cleo's sudden disappearance, and work together to find her - before it is too late.