title: An Absolute Gentleman: A Novel
author:  R. M. Kinder 
description: You may never look quite the same way at that punctilious little man down the street after reading this chilling first novel from Kinder, author of two well-received short story collections (<I>A Near-Perfect Gift</I> and <I>Sweet Angel Band</I>). Inspired by her own brush with a serial killer&mdash;back in the late '80s her neighbor Robert Weeks was sentenced to life in prison for two murders and suspected of more&mdash;Kinder deftly limns the deadly odyssey of Arthur Blume, a middle-aged creative writing professor who manages to be both the most ordinary and the most monstrous of creatures. The well-paced action cuts between Blume's Missouri present and horrific past in Georgia as the child of a psychotic teenage mother (which forms his view of treachery as the natural order and women as innately deceptive). Along the way, his slyly dropped clues&mdash;or are they red herrings?&mdash;add to the intrigue. Though one wishes that Kinder had gone lighter on some of the Southern-fried Freud, this artfully told tale of psychological suspense is as gripping as the spider webs Blume is so fond of studying. <I>(Oct.)</I> <BR>Copyright &copy; Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  > THE PERFECT GENTLEMAN
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  > JULIE COOPER
  
  >
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Copyright © 2019 by Julie Cooper
  
  
  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events,
  locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or
  used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or
  dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
  
  
  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or
  mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without
  written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in
  a book review.
  
  
  Edited by Kristi Rawlings and Jennifer Altman Cover by London Montgomery
  Designs
  
  
  ISBN
  
  
  978-1-951033-11-8 (ebook) 978-1-951033-12-5 (paperback)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  To Dennis, the perfect gentleman for me, and to Mom and Dad, for first showing
  me what love looks like
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  > TABLE OF CONTENTS
  
  > [The Perfect Gentleman: Volume I](index_split_000.html#filepos