The Agency

By Ally O'Brien

Book Overview

Meet Tess Drake. She's earned everything she has. Now it's time to get what she deserves... Sexy super-agent Tess Drake has worked hard to make a name for herself in the glamorous yet cut-throat entertainment industry. Tess works at an international agency, where she skillfully manages some of the world's biggest egos. Tess has been an agent there for longer than she cares to remember and now she's in trouble. After the mysterious death of the agency's senior partner, Lowell Bardwright, Tess's sworn enemy, Cosima Tate, has taken over and will do anything to send Tess's career down in flames. Tess has another little complication, too. She's sleeping with men on both sides of the Atlantic who are in bed with the women who are trying to sink her. Can Tess jump ship without losing her clients and breaking her heart? Or will she lose everything before finding out if she really has what it takes to do what she's always wanted?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312611137
• ISBN13: 9780312611132
• Release Date: October 2010
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

The Literary Life for Women

The question that is raised by this novel is can a man enjoy a book that is primarily about women and whose first person protagonist is a smart, sharp tongued 36 year old woman? To this reviewer the answer is a resounding yes. In many ways this is a very interesting book. For one it was actually written by two people joined under the pseudonymous name, "Ally O'Brien." For another if the publisher had not revealed this, the average reader (e.g. this reviewer) would not have known this. Every character in the book speaks with the same voice and displays the same personality from start to finish. As the title implies this book is about the denizens of a highly successful London media agency. The narrator of the story, Tess Drake (aka Filippa), is a successful literary agent who has one important client, an eccentric American writer of children's books and a whole lot of enemies, mostly other women. The novel has a murder mystery as a sub-plot, but the main thrust of the story is Tess's struggles with the other women rivals all of whom, like Tess, are tough, intelligent and ruthlessly ambitious. Men in this novel are more or less props and are objects of scorn, pity or lust. Homosexuality is treated as a simple fact of life and all the characters pretty much take it in stride. In many ways this is very much a novel of the 21st Century and its changing moral and sexual landscape. Well powerful, intelligent, and tough women are a turn on for some men (including this reviewer) and this novel has them in abundance. Maybe this is why even before the novel ends one is hoping "Ally O'Brien" will do a sequel to further chronicle the doings of the remarkable Ms. Drake.

Quick, witty, sassy, and so much fun!

The Agency was even more than I had hoped for, and my expectations were high having read the author's previous psychological suspense novels. While a completely different genre, it shares the top notch writing I've come to expect. I highly recommend it for men and women alike who enjoy a quality read.

Wickedly witty

The Agency is a romp through the world of publishing, as viewed through the eyes if its heroine, Tess Drake. Witty, foul-mouthed, and hilarious, Tess interacts with characters that range from a clinically depressed genius author, to an evil agency head, to a lusty assistant, to Tom Cruise. It's fun and thrilling and very, very entertaining. Highly recommended.

Light, Breezy, Fun

As a fan of the Shopaholic series and other chick-lit books, I found this book to be a wonderful new addition. It was a pretty fast read and I had no desire to put it down until it was done. The main character is a 36 year old literary agent who gets mixed up in murder, infidelity, back-stabbing co-workers and ... Tom Cruise! And even though it all ties together rather quickly and conveniently in the end, I still had a marvelous time the whole way through. It's a bit of fun in these sobering, cynical times. And what's so bad about that?

A Sexy, Snarky, Wonderful Romp into the Lit Biz...

The Agency A Novel by Ally O'Brien Once you meet Tess Drake you will never forget her. She has it all: the high powered career, the right clothes, many lovers, and is a suspect in a murder. What she doesn't have, she will fight, claw, lie, use her body and scheme to get. You may not like her, you may even hate her as I did, but by the time you finish this novel you will never forget her; and even hope that the author's (Ally O'Brien is the pseudonym for a writing duo) will do a follow up so we can see how Tess fares with the next part of her life. This book is one part chick lit, one part mystery and two parts pure, unadulterated, evil fun. You see, Tess has a dream. She wants to open her own media agency and it seems that the death of one of her bosses via erotic asphyxia is just the kick in the butt she needs to get her out the door. Her clients include an eccentric children's writer, a depressed fantasy author who has published a book that sold 11 copies and various others that we never get to meet. The secondary characters kept me going when I thought that I couldn't take one more moment of Tess's slavishness to her body's needs and vindictive, egocentric self-destructive behavior. But the best is yet to come. Her pigeons will come home to roost and roost they surely do. I ended up loving this book and am very sincere when I say that I hope that the authors do some sort of follow up on Tess's life. After all we've seen her at her worst, she can't get anymore self-destructive (or can she?) so why not let us see her grow? This is a fun and sometimes vulgar look into the life of an agent, and I recommend this highly to anyone looking for an alternative to the angst driven books that seem to populate the shelves lately.