Ignore the junk science and enjoy the pleasing conceit that ends with a genuinely surprising twist.
Rose’s U.S. debut employs a lightning strike to relocate her heroine in another woman’s body.
Strolling with her terrier near her flat in Epsom Downs, 28-year-old Jessica Taylor is instantly drawn to fellow dog walker Dan Brennan. Seconds later, she’s hit by a thunderbolt of a different kind, and revives at the hospital in the flesh of Lauren Richardson, wife of orthodontist Grant and mother of four. Jessica is even more bewildered when Lauren’s body goes to sleep and Jessica finds herself in another hospital, greeted by her own name. Both women, she learns, were struck by lightning at approximately the same time several miles apart, but while Jessica’s injuries were minor, Lauren’s heart stopped and it took doctors 40 minutes to resuscitate her. Her consciousness appears to have vanished, leaving Jessica’s to alternately occupy two bodies. When Lauren sleeps, Jessica wakes up back in her own life; night for Lauren becomes day for Jessica and vice versa. (Confused yet? The bizarre logistics somehow read plausibly.) As Lauren, Jessica quickly discovers all was not well in the affluent Richardson household. Her two daughters and twin boys, including learning-disabled Teddy, were consigned to various nannies and led strictly regimented lives; the old Lauren was a fastidious fashionista. Horrified by Grant’s increasingly menacing amorous overtures, Jessica/Lauren learns that Lauren is about to put Teddy in an institution and leave with her lover. (The lover, baffled by the change in plan, begins stalking her.) She finds herself growing attached to the children, who in turn appreciate their “new” mummy’s child-friendly household: She allows fries for lunch, a sandbox, playground equipment, a rabbit and a guinea pig. Meanwhile, back in her own life, Jessica realizes Dan is “the one.” But how can she tell him about her other identity, particularly when his late mother suffered from multiple-personality disorder?
Ignore the junk science and enjoy the pleasing conceit that ends with a genuinely surprising twist.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-385-34399-2
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2009
Above-average formula fiction, making full display of the author’s strong suits: sense of place, compassion for characters...
Female rivalry is again the main preoccupation of Hannah’s latest Pacific Northwest sob saga (Firefly Lane, 2008, etc.).
At Water’s Edge, the family seat overlooking Hood Canal, Vivi Ann, youngest and prettiest of the Grey sisters and a champion horsewoman, has persuaded embittered patriarch Henry to turn the tumbledown ranch into a Western-style equestrian arena. Eldest sister Winona, a respected lawyer in the nearby village of Oyster Shores, hires taciturn ranch hand Dallas Raintree, a half-Native American. Middle sister Aurora, stay-at-home mother of twins, languishes in a dull marriage. Winona, overweight since adolescence, envies Vivi, whose looks get her everything she wants, especially men. Indeed, Winona’s childhood crush Luke recently proposed to Vivi. Despite Aurora’s urging (her principal role is as sisterly referee), Winona won’t tell Vivi she loves Luke. Yearning for Dallas, Vivi stands up Luke to fall into bed with the enigmatic, tattooed cowboy. Winona snitches to Luke: engagement off. Vivi marries Dallas over Henry’s objections. The love-match triumphs, and Dallas, though scarred by child abuse, is an exemplary father to son Noah. One Christmas Eve, the town floozy is raped and murdered. An eyewitness and forensic evidence incriminate Dallas. Winona refuses to represent him, consigning him to the inept services of a public defender. After a guilty verdict, he’s sentenced to life without parole. A decade later, Winona has reached an uneasy truce with Vivi, who’s still pining for Dallas. Noah is a sullen teen, Aurora a brittle but resigned divorcée. Noah learns about the Seattle Innocence Project. Could modern DNA testing methods exonerate Dallas? Will Aunt Winona redeem herself by reopening the case? The outcome, while predictable, is achieved with more suspense and less sentimental histrionics than usual for Hannah.
Above-average formula fiction, making full display of the author’s strong suits: sense of place, compassion for characters and understanding of family dynamics.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-312-36410-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2008
Very slow off the mark, though once blackmail and murder enter the picture, Scottoline moves things along with her customary...
In Scottoline’s latest family-centered thriller (Accused, 2013, etc.), Jake Buckman lets son Ryan drive the family car on a back road. Very bad idea.
The car hits someone, and she’s dead. Faced with the prospect of his teenager’s life being ruined, Jake tells him to get back in the car, and they drive away. “[D]on’t tell Mom,” Jake warns; he loves his wife, but Pam has the personality you’d expect of a superior court judge (judgmental), and their marriage is still recovering from Jake’s decision to start his own business, which has made him a mostly absentee husband and father. He’s now “one of the top-ten ranked financial planners in southeastern Pennsylvania,” though his planning skills aren’t evident as Jake ineptly tries to cover their tracks. He also has a terrible time keeping his son from confessing once they learn that the dead girl is Ryan’s high school classmate Kathleen Lindstrom. It takes more than 100 pages for the plot to involve anything other than Jake’s nerves, Pam’s suspicions and Ryan’s guilty wails, all of which are believable but not very interesting. Sleazy blackmailer Lewis Deaner livens things up, especially after he turns up murdered. If the police find those cellphone pictures Deaner had of Jake and Ryan at the scene of the crime, Jake will be a suspect. And once Ryan has blurted out the truth to his mother, furious Pam might be just as happy to see Jake in jail. The killer’s identity isn’t much of a surprise, since he’s the only character with any individual traits apart from the Buckmans and the cops, but the final twist comes out of nowhere, 10 pages from the end.
Very slow off the mark, though once blackmail and murder enter the picture, Scottoline moves things along with her customary professionalism, if scant credibility.Pub Date: April 8, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-250-01009-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2014
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