SOONER OR LATER

by Elizabeth Adler ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1998

The ninth cream-stuffed suspenser by Adler, who, in Now or Never (1997), broke from the rich-and-famous genre into the champagne-laced serial-killer field, where she remains. Ellie Parrish Duveen was five when the brakes of her parents' Bentley convertible failed and the car plunged off a steep California road. Or had the brakes been tampered with? The orphaned Ellie survived, her forehead only scarred, and she grew up under the care of wealthy grandmother Lottie. But as it happened, Ellie's father had a son, Buck, from an earlier marriage. Buck was strictly psycho, and although he dressed and comported himself like Cary Grant, he had the lousy habit of strangling prostitutes during sex. Arrested for such indulgences, Buck beat a jail rap and wound up in a private New York hospital for rich sickos. After 20 years, his grandmother's money ran short and Buck was booted out, essentially for nonpayment. He still had a small sum in the bank, though, which by now had accrued to $35,000 traveling money. Set free, Buck kills another prostitute to get back in shape and entrains to California, where he learns that Ellie has opened a restaurant. He then begins to consider recovering his part of the family property and fortune through murder. Meanwhile, busy Ellie has no time for romance, but sooner or later, of course, it must come. It does so in the form of ex-NYPD detective Dan Cassidy, who, after taking a bullet in Manhattan, has retired to the West and bought a small winery near Ellie's restaurant. They meet, and love blooms, but gets set aside. Still, any reader will bet that, sure as night follows day, Ellie will eventually find herself being throttled by Buck in the Duveen family manse--with Dan, naturally, racing toward them in the night. Swift plotting and sensuous decor, but the end (alas) is never in doubt.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1998

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Delacorte

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1997

Categories: FICTION