Cardboard heroine Tracy Whitney goes from sweet-young-thing to
framed prisoninmate, from ruthless avenger to international
jewel-thief - as Sheldon, never known for originality, does his
laziest recycling yet, stringing together old movie-plot cliches
without shape or conviction. The opening chapters are almost comic
in their fast-food melodrama: pregnant Tracy, a Philadelphia
bank-employee about to wed society scion Charles Stanhope III,
hurries to hometown New Orleans after learning of her bankrupt
mother's suicide; she confronts the mobster who ruined Mother,
accidentally shooting him; but the Mob frames her for assault and
robbery, landing Tracy in the Big House - where she miscarries
after violent lesbian rape. Will Tracy have to serve 15 years? No,
of course not: after saving the Warden's wee daughter from
drowning, Tracy gets a pardon. So now she's free to take tricky
revenge on the half-dozen creeps who framed her - in a series of
unconvincing, quickie vignettes. (Charles III, who dumped Tracy in
her hour of need, requires no revenge action: he's now miserably
married to a society type.) End of story? Hardly. Unable to get
work because of her prison past, Tracy reluctantly becomes a
super-thief and con artist: she pulls off one daring scam after
another (a jewel-switch in London, an art theft in Madrid, etc.);
she is pursued by an ugly, obsessed insurance-company sleuth (a
misogynistic psycho who killed his sluttish mother); and she keeps
running into infuriating rival-thief Jeff Stevens. . . who'll
eventually become her lover and soulmate. A couple of the heists
here are pleasantly clever; most, however, are tired and/or
farfetched. At every turn, moreover, Sheldon's episodic, play-doh
plotting is riddled with implausibilities, painful contrivances.
(E.g., super-crook Tracy accidentally leaves a scarf with her
initials on it at the scene of one crime.) And, above all, Tracy
remains a faceless, unengaging creature throughout - mechanically
switching from idiotic wimp to cool customer. Without the zest and
corny satisfactions of Master of the Game, Rage of Angels, or
Bloodline: Sheldon's weakest novel yet, especially for movie-wise
readers (who'll suffer continuous dejavu) - but sure to attract the
large Sheldon following. (Kirkus Reviews)
THEIR DARKEST SECRETS WOULD TURN TO SHAME AND HAUNT THEIR CHILDREN'S CHILDREN
Olivia Winfield's hopes blossomed when the dashing Malcolm Foxworth asked her to marry him. But her hopes withered like flowers in the scorching sun when his true nature was revealed. Foxworth Hall, the beautiful home that should have given them so much happiness, became like a prison to her, with Malcolm the cruellest of jailers.
Suddenly, unexpectedly, the hand of friendship was offered to Olivia when Alicia, her father-in-law's new young bride, came to Foxworth Hall. The two women were unlikely companions, but soon the laughter of their youth filled the gloomy place. Yet over them both loomed the shadow of Malcolm, whose dark desires were to sow the seeds of a shocking secret that would lead in time to a darkened, locked attic room…
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