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MARITAL ASSETS

From the vantage of his diary 15 years after he and his wife Evelyn first came to know Weemo and Claudia Abbott, Charles Meredith, an attorney thoughtfully nearing retirement, traces the course of the passionate friendship between the two couples. Though he instantly likes affable, unpretentious Weemo, a child of the middle class gracefully grown into marriage to the Parine Pen family, it's Claudia who captures Charles's timid heart when they meet at a private club in the Caribbean. Without meaning to slight his patient, deliberate wife, Charles leaps to self-assured Claudia's aid when she asks him to explain the terms under which her shares of Parine are held in trust. Will she indeed lose her inheritance if she divorces Weemo within the next seven years? In a legal twist reminiscent of Ducker's Bankroll (1989), Charles soon discovers that as an adopted child, rather than as an ``heir of the body,'' of her doting father, Claudia may have no claim on the Parine shares at all. As he presses her bullheaded brother Gordon's lawyer for meetings, the scene shifts to Aspen, where the couples share absent Gordon's sumptuous mountain lodge and take charming L.A. businessman Jeremy Slatkin into their circle—as Weemo and Evelyn take each other to bed. Charles, lacking their forthrightness, can neither consummate his affair with Claudia nor press hard enough for the legal remedy he wants to present her—though he senses that Jeremy, equally in love with her, has some kind of legal fireworks up his sleeve. Some quiet last-minute surprises do little to disturb the ruefully self- comforting tenor of Charles's reflections. Ducker's elegantly underplotted intrigue will leave the grosser appetites unsated. Even more patrician tastes, however, may find Charles's gentlemanly inertia and his lucubrations upon it less interesting than they are plainly intended to be.

Pub Date: April 1, 1993

ISBN: 1-877946-26-5

Page Count: 312

Publisher: Permanent Press

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1993

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MAGIC HOUR

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.

Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

Pub Date: March 1, 2006

ISBN: 0-345-46752-3

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005

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FIREFLY LANE

Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of...

Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah’s maudlin latest (Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State.

Tallulah “Tully” Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Tully takes refuge with the family of her “best friend forever,” Kate Mularkey, who compares herself unfavorably with Tully, in regards to looks and charisma. In college, “TullyandKate” pledge the same sorority and major in communications. Tully has a life goal for them both: They will become network TV anchorwomen. Tully lands an internship at KCPO-TV in Seattle and finagles a producing job for Kate. Kate no longer wishes to follow Tully into broadcasting and is more drawn to fiction writing, but she hesitates to tell her overbearing friend. Meanwhile a love triangle blooms at KCPO: Hard-bitten, irresistibly handsome, former war correspondent Johnny is clearly smitten with Tully. Expecting rejection, Kate keeps her infatuation with Johnny secret. When Tully lands a reporting job with a Today-like show, her career shifts into hyperdrive. Johnny and Kate had started an affair once Tully moved to Manhattan, and when Kate gets pregnant with daughter Marah, they marry. Kate is content as a stay-at-home mom, but frets about being Johnny’s second choice and about her unrealized writing ambitions. Tully becomes Seattle’s answer to Oprah. She hires Johnny, which spells riches for him and Kate. But Kate’s buttons are fully depressed by pitched battles over slutwear and curfews with teenaged Marah, who idolizes her godmother Tully. In an improbable twist, Tully invites Kate and Marah to resolve their differences on her show, only to blindside Kate by accusing her, on live TV, of overprotecting Marah. The BFFs are sundered. Tully’s latest attempt to salvage Cloud fails: The incorrigible, now geriatric hippie absconds once more. Just as Kate develops a spine, she’s given some devastating news. Will the friends reconcile before it’s too late?

Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of poignancy.

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008

ISBN: 978-0-312-36408-3

Page Count: 496

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2007

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