The Montecito Collection

About the Book

Three stories flick at the edges of Montecito society. "Deadly History" tells of shadowy doings at the estate where the Society for Historical Research spends millions and the Fellows squabble over honors. The Senior Fellow sulks in Ireland until a dazzling lawyer pushes him on to center stage.

"The Day the Dogs Took Over" is a cautionary tale about the fate of a Montecito eleven year old when freeway sniping orphans him, and just about everyone else who can drive!

"The Big Hersey Bar" deals with the romantic and alcoholic ways of some sorts of Montecito lifestyles, following the lives of two girls who both succeed and also fail at joining local society.

No matter what the reader thinks he knows about Montecito, these stories will stimulate memories of funny, sad and inspiring people we have all known in this paradise of climate, luxuriant foliage and high mountains.

About the Author

Distinguished wit and bon vivant, novelist Richard Crissman has contributed to MONEY magazine and various publications of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Potomac Institute. His offbeat novels are about money and what it does to people: the power, the self-indulgence and the glamour! He shares the secrets of making, keeping and managing vast fortunes.

His characters are eccentric, foolish, and very human: nuts and nuggets. His plots are unexpected and as American as P. G. Wodehouse's plots were top-drawer British.

Crissman and his elegant wife live in Southern California, very much part of the milieu of which he writes.