The Prince of Paradise - by John Glatt (Paperback)

About the Book

Chronicles the murder case of Fontainebleau Hotel heir Ben Novack, Jr., tracing his childhood at the sides of famous celebrities, his multi-million-dollar business deals, and the savage killing many believe was arranged by his wife.

Book Synopsis

True crime reporter John Glatt tells the whole story of this twisted case of passion, perversion, and paradise lost, in Prince of Paradise.

Ben Novack, Jr. was born into a life of luxury and opulence. Heir to the legendary Fontainebleau hotel, he spent his childhood surrounded by some of the world's biggest stars, including Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack, Elvis Presley, and Ann-Margret, who performed regularly at the Fontainebleau's La Ronde Room. He sat by while his parents entertained presidents and movie stars, as they reigned over Miami Beach in the '50's and '60's, and when the family business went sour he became wealthy in his own right, founding a multi-million dollar business using connections he made at the Fontainebleau.

But Ben, Jr.'s luxurious, celebrity-studded lifestyle would end in another hotel room--a thousand miles away from the one where he grew up--when police found him bound up in duct tape, beaten to death.

Seven years earlier, police found Novack in an eerily similar situation--when his wife Narcy duct-taped him to a chair for twenty-four hours and robbed him. Claiming it was a sex game, he never pressed charges and never followed through with a divorce. Now prosecutors claimed Narcy let the vicious killers into the room and watched as they beat her husband with dumbbells. They also suspected she was involved in the horrendous death of Novack's mother, just three months before. But it would be Narcy's own daughter who implicated her to the police.

Review Quotes

"From the provocative opening sentence ('When retired police chief James Scarberry heard in July 2009 that Ben Novack Jr. had been brutally murdered, with his eyes gouged out, he was not surprised.'), true-crime veteran Glatt grabs the reader's attention. With a perfect amount of detail, he traces the sad life of Novack--whose father, Ben Sr., founded Miami Beach's legendary Fountainebleau Hotel--from an unhappy childhood to his death in 2009 at the age of 53. . . . This gripping account is proof that truth can be stranger--and far more disturbing--than fiction." --Publishers Weekly

"One of the finest true crime craftsmen writing today." --Harold Goldberg, VH1.com

"How do you say 'juicy' in French." --People Magazine on The Royal House of Monaco

"A real guilty Pleasure." --Entertainment Weekly on The Royal House of Monaco

About the Author

English-born JOHN GLATT is the author of more than twenty bestselling true crime novels, including Playing with Fire, Secrets in the Cellar, The Lost Girls. He has more than 30 years of experience as an investigative journalist in England and America. Glatt left school at 16 and worked a variety of jobs--including tea boy and messenger--before joining a small weekly newspaper. He freelanced at several English newspapers, then in 1981 moved to New York, where he joined the staff for News Limited and freelanced for publications including Newsweek and the New York Post. His first book, a biography of Bill Graham, was published in 1981, and he published For I Have Sinned, his first book of true crime, in 1998. He has appeared television and radio programs all over the world, including Dateline NBC, Fox News, Current Affair, BBC World, and A&E Biography. He and his wife Gail divide their time between New York City, the Catskill Mountains and London.