When sex is sold there's only room for one selfish person and here it's the woman who's paying who gets to be selfish. It's the 1980s and Cathy Harrison helps to set up London's most active male escort agency in the pre-internet age. The Park Agency sells sex to women. Cathy and her boss Patricia Roberts bring a new approach to a very old profession. They reach deep into the minds of their clients and find out what their secret fantasies are. The Park Agency always aims for satisfied customers. As the business grows more and more tastes are catered for and this leads to the disintegration of their star escort Ken in a drug fuelled murder with an unexpected ending. The story realistically portrays working in a successful male escort agency and shows what happens when sex is sold in a largely unreported market. Nobody understands why Cathy makes Ken her favourite. They can't understand why she lets him get away with so many things in a business that treats its staff in a very harsh way. The Park Agency doesn't use pep talks to get the escorts to follow the rules. They use violence and coercion if any of the escorts steps out of line. Everyone thinks that Cathy treats Ken so well because he is so good at his work. All the clients love him. He just has to smile at you and you would smile back. You feel better and you do not know why but you also do not care why. When Ken smiles at you all of a sudden your world is a better place. Until the time you've paid for him runs out but don't worry Cathy can book him again for you. Or at least she could before he goes off the rails. The Secrets reveals what women really think about sex. It deals candidly with what women want when they don't have to please anyone else but themselves. Anything they do remains their little secret or at least a secret shared with Cathy who is always only too happy to provide them with more of what they want. The Park Agency brings a lot of happiness into a lot of women's lives. Not everyone involved emerges unscathed though. Some get corroded by the process and some get very badly hurt and worse. The 1980s was a time when women empowered themselves to make decisions about buying sex without feeling that they need anyone else's approval. The novel deals with issues of control and sexuality. More importantly it also shows what happens with sex when nobody says no.
About the Author: Paying for sex is one of the oldest stories in the world. Ordinary women paying men to have sex in the 1980s was a new story. Most of the things you think you know about the sex trade are just wrong. The Secrets tells the story of what happens when money and sex are controlled by women for women. Is sex a commodity? Read about women who think it is and what happens when nobody says no. I went to university and joined a bank had a successful career in the markets. In finance I knew all about commodities. I had a painfully conventional upbringing and career. Back then I knew nothing about the Escort Agency world and then I found out too much. I grew up in the 1980s in London in a strange dislocated world. My mother was a Docker's daughter but became a successful business woman. She sent me to the best expensive schools available while my extended family all lived in London's East End and were tremendously proud of their working class culture. So during the week I read medieval French poetry and learnt about geometry. At the weekend I shared in uproarious goings-on about scams and vaguely criminal activities that my wider family had got away with to make enough money to watch football and have it away large at the weekend. I am the proud mother of two beautiful children who I have decided to raise away from London after the meltdown of my marriage. I am still pretty conventional but I am proud of the strong women who raised me. I have learnt to love them more through understanding how complex moral problems rarely have the easy answers we believe they should. This is my first book and I have reached a point in my life when I feel I have to share what I know about a closed world that flourishes despite most people knowing very little about how things really happen. I hate having my picture taken and I am a very private person. I have been a recluse recently. I am new to social media so forgive me if I do silly things on Facebook! I learnt to be private to protect myself. I had to tell this story and I am working on the sequel now so if I can figure out how to do a newsletter I will let you know! I would love to hear from you! Please contact me at chloejnow@gmail.com You can also follow me on twitter: @chloejnow Check out my blog: https: //chloejweb.wordpress.com/