by John Sherlock ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 5, 1981
A crass, mostly unsuccessful attempt to emulate the glitz appeal of such as Princess Daisy. Ceetra Rampling, 26, is London's top fashion designer, dripping with wealth (white Rolls Royce convertible), having an affair with married Paul Mayhew (when she's not nude water-skiing in the Greek Islands or shopping bare-breasted in St. Tropez)--but she's strangled by her inability to match her multi-billionaire dad's expectations and overcome her feelings of inferiority to his Texan accomplishments as owner of the world's largest construction company. So, when both Daddy Rampling and brother Bromley are killed while building a 3,000-mile commuter tunnel (trains will be hurled coast-to-coast in 30 minutes), Ceetra is ambivalent about whether to run the construction company herself or merely sell it and become the world's richest woman. Meanwhile, her Thorazine-swacked mother has spent the past 20 years in a sanitorium for the wealthy. And there's Dan Blake, Daddy Rampling's personal assistant, a Marlboro Man of the tunnels who is surely attractive as a surrogate father-lover figure. But plotting against the tunnel is Ed Morley, a fading super-lobbyist whose fortunes may be restored if he can get a flaw built into the tunnel which will cause a collapse during the first shuttle service (thus shattering the commuter business and saving the airlines). Will Ceetra take over or run from the challenge? Well, she refuses to sell the business so that it can go public and, despite claustrophobia, visits the tunnel (it's nearly a mile underground)--where she swears she sees supposedly dead Bromley. And, despite attempts on her life (a bystander victim burns to death before her eyes holding an electric cable), she hangs tough, fighting absenteeism by installing a brothel at the tunnel. Finally, then, a dam is sabotaged, wiping out the camp, Dan is hurt, Ceetra takes over the recovery operation on the spot--and a second sabotage leaves her trapped below (with crazed, matted, suppurating Bromley), ready to be saved by Dan. Dubiously heavy psychology, standard romance, fair melodrama--serviceable second-string pulp for the Krantz/Sheldon/ Robbins audience.
Pub Date: April 5, 1981
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
Review Posted Online: N/A
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1981
Categories: FICTION
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