Customer Reviews

Bloodline

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This wonderful thriller is the story of Elizabeth Roffe, whose father has just died (or was he murdered?), leaving her heiress to a multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical maker. She takes over the reins of the company with the help of Rhys Williams, a handsome but mysterious self-made man. Elizabeth's four quirky cousins and co-owners of the company each have shady pasts and need money, badly. They are pressuring her to allow the company to go public; she refuses, and becomes the target of an unknown assassin.

This is a book you will not be able to put down. The story is full of fascinating flashbacks, detailing the often bizarre lives of all the Roffes: Alec from London, Helene from Paris, Anna from Berlin, and Ivo from Rome. Each one has a reason to want Elizabeth out of the way, and as the attempts on her life increase, the tension mounts until the killer is revealed in a truly frightening conclusion. Highly recommended for Sidney Sheldon fans and everyone who enjoys fast-paced stories full of action and memorable characters. This book was made into an all-star movie with Audrey Hepburn, Omar Sharif, and James Mason.

Kona

Call it a craze of a Die hard Fan of Sid - I find Sid's Books, Interesting Reads that glues to start to finish read. His novels are royal touch that walks one mentally through the series of events that are emotional, sensational, touchy, investigative, gripping. Till the end, Sid keeps mystery and thats the charm of his novels. Elizabeth, the main character of the book, inherits her Dad's Company worth millions of dollars and becomes indecisive what to do. Her emotional character is twined with many other characters in the book like a thriller movie. She has to outwit the unknown assassin who wants her life as Sid passes the reader through betrayal, greed, danger and killing phase. Sid portrays Elizabeth as intelligent, tough, daring and beautiful lady. A nice read on a Hot summer day to stay chilled in the comforts of the Reading room with the book.

I love this book so much it has been a keeper on my shelves for eighteen years. It has a few too many flashbacks in the beginning, but once you get into the story it is dynamite. I love the on-going story, the characters, and the fast-pace of the plot.

It was the first Sidey Sheldon's book I ever read, and I loved it. This book is very exciting and smart.When you starts reading, you can't stop it. I think the story is great,it has a lot of suspense and a little of romance, with a fantastic end. It's great, great, great, fantastic, I don't know how to describe it!!!!!!

I really enjoyed this book. It was the first I read of this author and it made me want to read all that I could. This book was great becuase it kept you guessing until the end. I would highly recommend this book.

Another fantastic, mind-gripping read, holding its audience from page one. Bloodline spins the tale of a family-run pharmaceutical conglomerate. Roffe and Sons has been passed down to the heirs of Samuel Roffe's family, Sam Roffe, the only male descendant and holder of the controlling interest of the company, Anna Roffe married to Walther Gassner, Ivo Palazzi, married to Simonetta Roffe, Charles Martel married to Helene Roffe and Sir Alec Nichols' mother had been a Roffe. Samuel Roffe, founder of the company, had decided from the beginning that his company never go public. His theory, "Never let a friendly fox into your hen house. One day he's going to get hungry." When Sam Roffe (an experienced climber) dies in a mysterious mountain climbing accident, Elizabeth inherits his controlling interest in the company. Suddenly, life-threatening events begin to happen to her as she holds onto her great-great grandfather's wishes after finding a book telling the story of Samuel Roffe's life and the tense, emotional and physical struggle he endured to build the company from the ground up. In her great-great grandfather's memory and approach, she is determined to keep the company private and uncover the person responsible for the evil doings within the upper echelon (that being one of four of her cousins) or possibly her father's right-hand man, Rhys Williams. Rhys, not being a member of the family, was brought into the company by Elizabeth's father, however, unless he married a Roffe, in this case, Elizabeth (since she was the only female left), would be unable to sit on the Board of Directors. Williams was always kind to Liz (is it merely business or personal?) who grew up without a father's presence in her life (just the comforts of his money). Liz felt, even though she harbored strong feelings for Rhys, she could not afford to trust him or anyone until she uncovered the person out to destroy all that Samuel Roffe had built. Each cousin has their own issues; Anna Roffe's husband is out to destroy their children, Ivo Palazzi is leading a double life with two families, Charles is being lead around by Helene as a boy toy, Sir Alec has married Vivian, a wild, crazy party girl and Rhys has worked long and hard his adult life for Sam without the benefit of even a share of stock in the multimillion dollar business. Each one has their own agenda for forcing first Sam and now Elizabeth to have the company go public and thereby attaining the financial means to destroy the "fly in the ointment" of their respective lives. I could not put this book down until the last page was turned. Sheldon is the "master of storytelling."

Another page-turner. How does Sheldon do it? Fast-paced, well-crafted, marvelous characters (Remember Donatella ?), and an edge-of-your-seat conclusion. Too bad the movie wasn't as good.

I COULDN'T PUT THE BOOK DOWN. I THOUGHT IT WAS ONE OF HIS BEST. I AM A SHELDON FAN & HAVE READ MOST OF HIS WORKS. I REALLY ENJOYED THIS PARTICULAR ONE. I WOULD DEFINITELY RECOMMEND IT.

This is my favourite Sidney Sheldon book.It is completely captivating till the end.
The story goes like this: Elizabeth Roffe becomes the president of a multi-billion dollar pharmacutical maker after the death of her father.Elizabeth's four cousins force her to allow the company to go public but she refuses after coming to know that her father was murdered by one of her four cousins and eventually becomes the target of the murderer.
Now all of Elizabeth's cousins have a reason for murder as they are all in need of money.The author tells us about the lives of the four Roffes and it was undoubtedtly my favourite part of the book.
A must read for all of the Sidney Sheldon fans

Reading Sheldon's most recent book "Are You Afraid of the Dark" reminded me of this, the first book of his I read, "Bloodline." I still consider Bloodline to be his best work, definitely in the first order of all thrillers written. It has it all -- beautiful heroine, exotic locales, all sort of deviancy to satisfy my prurient and adolescent mind, great plot that keeps you guessing, great characters, great psychology, and interesting insights into lifestyles of the rich and famous.

Also, Bloodline was, strangely enough, my first great motivational book. I read it not long after it came out, in 1979 or 1980, when I was a young teenager. It had an effect on me as a 14-year-old that "Atlas Shrugged" or "The Fountainhead" might have on a 20-year old. The book made me think of what *my* future would be, and whether I would be up to the task of meeting that future head-on. That is the book's greatest strength: it describes people facing adversity and succeeding despite myriad obstacles.

There is one part of the plot that I must comment on, however. A good capital markets attorney, even in the 1970s, could have resolved the Roffe family's cash flow problems quite easily. Further bank loans would have been entirely unnecessary. All that was required was to make an offering of common stock to the general public to raise the needed money, simultaneously giving the Roffe family shares of preferred stock, with the preferred stock tradeable only within the Roffe family. The preferred stock would give the collective holders thereof majority control over the board of directors of the company, say four out of seven seats, and preference rights to receive dividends. Presto -- the Roffe family remains in control, cash flow problems are solved, and the Roffe family taps into some big bucks. The New York Times Company actually has something similar to this, allowing the Sulzbergers to retain control while holding only a small proportion of the outstanding stock. See Note 15 of the financial statements to the New York Times Company's most recent Form 10-K. Simple, no? Sir Alec could get the money to pay off the gangsters, Ivo could pay off Donatella, Walther could afford a nice cushy asylum for Anna, and Helene could...well, do something mean and nasty I guess, and everyone would be happy, no murder or mayhem necessary. But I digress. Read and enjoy the book. It amply deserves a five-star rating.