Richard L Parker

The Books

Richard Parker has written three novels. First Edition was published in 2010. His latest book Keep Your Enemies Closer was released in 2013. He has also written Don't Tell My Mother, which was optioned by MGM.

1. KEEP YOUR ENEMIES CLOSER is a corporate thriller about Wall Street, the City of London and Hollywood.

When ex-lawyer and investment banker Rob Perkins is appointed as F! Corporation’s new Chief Operating Officer, he doesn’t know that his predecessor was fired for his failed attempt to oust F!’s duplicitous CEO, Jonathan Feldman.Within weeks of joining the world’s largest media and entertainment conglomerate Rob learns that if he is to survive the highly treacherous corridors of the Shard in London, the global headquarters of F! he will need to keep his friends close, and his enemies even closer.

Martin Saul’s failed boardroom coup leads to an internal witchhunt by Feldman for all those who were loyal to Saul.Soon Saul is gone, as is the hugely successful head of F!’s iconic film studio, Dave Sherwin, Saul’s most loyal ally.As the novel moves from the Cannes Film Festival in the French Riviera to the City of London, Wall Street and Hollywood Rob looks to stamp his mark on F! as its new COO. Rob quickly finds himself in the midst of a highly competitive and acrimonious battle for a 51% stake in United Pictures with a host of bidders including the corporate raider and private equity firm Bainbridge Capital now headed by Martin Saul.

It doesn’t take long for Rob to realise that Saul’s appointment as CEO of the giant private equity firm and hedge fund, Bainbridge Capital, changes everything for Feldman, F! Corporation and Rob himself.Rob’s and Saul’s battle for control of United Pictures proves to be just a prelude to Saul’s ultimate goal: control of F! Corporation and deposing Feldman and F!’s Chairman, Sir Hamish Childs.When Bainbridge Capital surprises the markets by taking a 15% stake in F! Corporation Feldman knows that Saul and Bainbridge Capital are coming after him.The only question is can he stop them?Can Rob stop them and does he want to?

As Rob battles with Bainbridge Capital and Feldman, who has come to see Rob as a threat to his ongoing tenure as CEO, the FBI and SEC have come to believe that a number of high profile individuals in the capital markets of London and New York are involved in systematic insider trading. With the help of court-approved wiretaps the FBI begins to close in on a group of people at some of the world’s most powerful corporations, law firms, investment banks and hedge funds.The question is who at F! Corporation and Bainbridge are involved and what will the fall out be, if they are caught?

2. In FIRST EDITION James Mason has one of the best jobs in the world. As editor of the Globe, one of London’s leading tabloid newspapers, his job is all about entertainment. It’s also about destroying the lives of politicians and celebrities. And it’s about publicly humiliating the more fortunate for the pleasure of the less fortunate. And if James Mason has learned nothing else in his nearly 20 years on Fleet St it’s that nothing entertains, nothing destroys and nothing humiliates quite like infidelity. And nothing sells like infidelity either. And so when the opportunity arises to expose the infidelity of one of Britain’s leading politicians with a high-class call girl, James doesn’t hesitate to take it.

But how does James cope when he goes from reporting the news to being the news? How does he cope when his own infidelity is exposed and the details of his year long affair with London socialite and IT girl, Sienna Barrett, are splashed on the front pages of rival newspapers and he finds himself hounded by the tabloid press? How does he cope when he and his family lose that which he so routinely denies others? Namely, their privacy.

If James Mason is in the relationship destruction business then his American wife, the internationally-renowned marriage therapist, Dr Deborah Sacks, is in the relationship salvation business. For Deborah almost everyone deserves a second chance, even those who are guilty of infidelity. But how does Deborah cope with her own husband’s adultery? Can she give James a second chance? Can she follow the advice she has given her clients and her millions of readers? She has spent her life saving the marriages and relationships of others, but can she save her own?

First Edition, as it explores the world of tabloid journalism and celebrity, follows the trials and tribulations of James and his efforts to make the Globe the nation’s top selling newspaper. From attending film premieres in Leicester Square, to after-parties in Mayfair, to defending libel proceedings from A-list Hollywood actors, to launching the Globe’s new Page 5 Girls, as he takes the Tribune’s Page 3 Girls head on, the life of James Mason is nothing if not entertaining. But tabloid editors by the very nature of their jobs have their enemies. And over the years James had created more than his fair share of enemies - many of whom will stop at nothing to exact revenge.

While James tries to make the Globe an even bigger success, Deborah faces her own challenges – from counselling wives, who’ve had enough of their useless husbands who do nothing around the house, who don’t know the names of their children’s friends, or even when their children’s birthdays are, to staking out suspected adulterous husbands in Notting Hill, to researching theories on how husbands really want their wives to behave in the bedroom.

First Edition is a novel that is both witty and comic. It’s a story about tabloid journalism and our obsession with celebrity. It’s also a story about relationships, infidelity and revenge.

3. DON'T TELL MY MOTHER can best be described as a comedy that is a cross between Californication, Sex and the City and Bridget Jones. The novel's main character is Toby Willis. Toby has every man's dream job. It is 2001 and he works in London as the editor of an adult entertainment magazine called Thruster. There is only one problem. Toby is too embarrassed to tell anyone what he does; especially his mother and prospective girlfriends. All of which poses a problem when Toby falls in love with Charlotte Fisher, a beautiful American working as a lawyer in London for a large US law firm, and tells her he's the editor of an architectural magazine.

Toby's life is further complicated by the fact that Thruster, a 3rd-tier porn mag at best, is facing declining sales and advertising revenue. Unless Toby can turn it around he won't have a job to be embarrassed about. But Toby has ideas about how he can win the love of Charlotte and turn around the magazine.

Toby Willis, like David Duchovny’s Hank Moody in Californication, isn’t a perfect person but he has a good heart. He makes mistakes and does things he knows his mother wouldn’t be proud of. But readers will find that they can’t help rooting for him and praying he wins the heart of Charlotte and turns around the fortunes of Thruster. The rights to Don't Tell My Mother were optioned by MGM in 2004.