Here's the stuff of nightmares for those intimidated by doctors, and husbands for that matter, from the author a Kiss Mommy Goodbye (l98l) and others. Fielding's psychological suspenses have always been geared toward the girls, and See Jane Run is no exception. Quelle surprise when Jane Whittaker finds herself in the middle of downtown Boston with blood spattered on the front of her dress, $l0,000 in large bills stuffed in her pockets, and no idea who she is! After stashing the filthy frock and loot in a locker and roaming aimlessly for a spell, she winds up in Boston Hospital, where she's recognized as the wife of the widely respected pediatrician, Michael Whittaker. He claims her, takes her home to the suburbs, acts oh so nice, installs a fascist housekeeper to watch over her while he's at work, and feeds her lots of funny little pills which only make her feel worse. Other things further unhinge her: the fresh scar on Michael's forehead (which she connects with the blood on her dress), neighbor, Carole, who accuses her an extramarital affair, and the news that she has a daughter, Emily, who Michael is keeping out of sight. One foiled runaway attempt brings revelations from the good doctor, who tells Jane that she killed both her mother and Emily, and bashed him with an Oriental vase, causing the cut. Understandably, Jane freaks, making drug injections seem reasonable, though they turn her into a near vegetable. But when she learns by accident that Emily is alive, she bolts, intent on figuring out what really happened on the day her amnesia set in. The ugly truth has to do with Michael's deep, dark attraction to little girls—which he's ready to do anything to hide. Fielding's tracking of Jane's amnesia is belabored, but besides this the book's a bang-up good read, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane meets The Good Mother, and probably Fielding's best since Kiss Mommy Goodbye.
Pub Date: May 16, 1991
ISBN: 0-688-08867-8
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1991
Britisher Swift's sixth novel (Ever After, 1992 etc.) and fourth to appear here is a slow-to-start but then captivating tale of English working-class families in the four decades following WW II. When Jack Dodds dies suddenly of cancer after years of running a butcher shop in London, he leaves a strange request—namely, that his ashes be scattered off Margate pier into the sea. And who could better be suited to fulfill this wish than his three oldest drinking buddies—insurance man Ray, vegetable seller Lenny, and undertaker Vic, all of whom, like Jack himself, fought also as soldiers or sailors in the long-ago world war. Swift's narrative start, with its potential for the melodramatic, is developed instead with an economy, heart, and eye that release (through the characters' own voices, one after another) the story's humanity and depth instead of its schmaltz. The jokes may be weak and self- conscious when the three old friends meet at their local pub in the company of the urn holding Jack's ashes; but once the group gets on the road, in an expensive car driven by Jack's adoptive son, Vince, the story starts gradually to move forward, cohere, and deepen. The reader learns in time why it is that no wife comes along, why three marriages out of three broke apart, and why Vince always hated his stepfather Jack and still does—or so he thinks. There will be stories of innocent youth, suffering wives, early loves, lost daughters, secret affairs, and old antagonisms—including a fistfight over the dead on an English hilltop, and a strewing of Jack's ashes into roiling seawaves that will draw up feelings perhaps unexpectedly strong. Without affectation, Swift listens closely to the lives that are his subject and creates a songbook of voices part lyric, part epic, part working-class social realism—with, in all, the ring to it of the honest, human, and true.
Pub Date: April 5, 1996
ISBN: 0-679-41224-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1996
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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