The Architect

Struggling architect Ethan Cotham may have just won a prestigious competition to design the new Center for Southern Culture on the banks of the Mississippi River-but his troubles are only beginning. Now his unconventional ideas must survive a withering attack by the conservative Memphis Board of Design Review and the schemes of his former mentor, a bitter professional rival. To make matters worse, Cotham must fend off the amorous advances of the ravishing but predatory director of the Brooks Museum of Art while trying to meet the pressing demands of his other clients. Not only do social climbers Roberta and Thurston Quonset have their heart set on a gargantuan trophy house, but the Bishop of North Mississippi has enmeshed his architect in a cynical web of church politics. As work on the Center for Southern Culture finally commences, Cotham begins to suspect that his plans are being undermined-literally-by the Colonel, an unscrupulous construction manager for a huge St. Louis contractor notorious for cutting corners. Isolated and desperate to save the project and his reputation, Cotham's only ally is the beautiful and psychic Pallie Pelham. Written with a solid ring of authenticity, the story builds to a suspenseful and tragic climax amidst its setting in Memphis and Mississippi, a region peopled by colorful characters where the past is inevitably in conflict with the present.