The Prince of Paradise

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Retail NookBen 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—in this twisted case of passion, perversion, and paradise lost. Review“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.comPraise for The Royal House of Monaco:“How do you say ‘juicy’ in French.” —People Magazine“A real guilty Pleasure.” —Entertainment WeeklyAbout the AuthorEnglish-born JOHN GLATT is the author of twenty books, and has over thirty years of experience as an investigative journalist in England and America. He divides his time between New York and London. Visit him on the Web at www.johnglatt.com.