Eager to Please [Hardcover]

Julie Parsons (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 25, 2001

Julie Parsons exploded onto the literary suspense scene with her debut novel, "Mary, Mary," and continued to gain critical acclaim and readers with her follow-up, "The Courtship Gift." Now, in this haunting tale of seduction and revenge, Parsons introduces another strong and resourceful heroine. "Eager to Please" again proves why Jeffery Deaver called Parsons "one of those rare authors who can successfully combine psychological insight, literary style, and heart-stopping suspense."

After spending twelve years of a life sentence in prison for the murder of her husband -- a murder she swears she didn't commit -- Rachel Beckett has been released on parole. In addition to the grief she feels from the loss of her husband, she has been denied the love of her only daughter, Amy, forced to stand by as another woman raised her child and enjoyed her affections. Amy, now seventeen, insists she never wants to see her real mother again. Rachel's attempts to reach out to her are rejected.

As Rachel starts to become accustomed to life outside of prison, she suffers another loss. Her dearest friend from jail, Judith, is brutally murdered. Detective Jack Donnelly, one of the policemen who arrived at Rachel's house the night of her husband's murder, is assigned this new case. Once again their lives are intertwined as Jack starts keeping tabs on Rachel, as she plots vengeance on Daniel Beckett -- her past lover, her husband's brother, the man who should have gone to prison for his murder. Rachel cleverly insinuates herself into Daniel's life by making friends with his wife and children. Then she seduces him and sets the stage for the nail-biting climax.

Who will survive? Daniel, Rachel,or neither?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The atmosphere of Ireland is almost palpable in Parsons's strong but unevenly plotted thriller (after Mary, Mary and The Courtship Gift). The beauteous Rachel Beckett shot her husband after a row, and her lover, her husband's adopted brother, Daniel, finished the job. At least that's the story Rachel tells. But no one believes her, and she is sentenced to life in prison. Paroled at the age of 42, she goes home and, while readjusting to life outside, secretly hatches a plot against her former lover, ingratiating herself into his family and restarting their affair, putting to use the dubious lessons learned from her fellow prisoners. Rachel's parole officer has his own agenda, a very sick wife and a guilty conscience. While casting her net over Daniel, Rachel tries to recontact their teenage daughter, Amy, who wants nothing to do with her. When Rachel finally springs her trap and disappears, leaving evidence that Daniel has killed her, he uses Amy to try to draw Rachel out and shows his true colors when the plan backfires. It's an engrossing story, sharply imagined at points; the tender but ambiguous relationship between the parole officer and his wife and Rachel's anguish over her daughter are particularly well executed. But the protagonists are problematic: Rachel is presented as a victim, and her transformation into black widow is too abrupt; Daniel has been made neither so heartless nor so desperate as to put his daughter's life in jeopardy. Even so, Parsons manages to establish a taut narrative of psychological suspense, far superior to the average suspense novel, and more is to be expected from this promising writer.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Rachel Beckett, a talented architect, was convicted of murdering her policeman husband, Martin. After serving 12 years of a life sentence in a Dublin prison, she has been provisionally released and is determined to exact vengeance on her husband's adopted brother, Daniel, whom she believes is the true murderer. Meanwhile, jaded detective Jack Donnelly investigates the murder of Judith Hill, a young woman whom Rachel had befriended in prison. To make matters worse for the parolee, her daughter continues to believe that Rachel is her father's killer and harbors a deep hatred, despite Rachel's attempts to reach out to her. This psychological thriller is the third novel by Dublin-based Parsons (after The Courtship Gift). Although the plot is tightly constructed and suspenseful, the book falters because of the author's overwrought style and Rachel's monomaniacal desire for retribution, which makes her a flat and unlikable character. Recommended where there is demand for thrillers. Jane la Plante, Minot State Univ., ND
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1St Edition edition (September 25, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743219317
• ISBN-13: 978-0743219310
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,283,803 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 'Please' Is A Pleasure, December 12, 2001

By 

sweetmolly (RICHMOND, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eager to Please (Hardcover)

Rachel Beckett has served 12 years of a life sentence for the murder of her husband. She did not commit the murder, and has been meticulously planning her revenge for these twelve miserable years when she finally receives a conditional parole.

Everything about this tale is very Irish, including the judicial system. American readers will be surprised to find Rachel was convicted by a "majority" vote of the jury, 10-2. Rachel was totally convinced she would be acquitted and made no mental preparations for a prison sentence. Her descent into the life of a penitentiary is harrowing. It was so profoundly shocking to her, I could not see her living a month. We gradually realize Rachel has an inner toughness and determination that permits her to make use of her time in prison. We know she has a well-formulated "plan," but we don't know what it is.

As Rachel's character unfolds, our admiration and apprehension increase in equal measure. We revise our picture of Rachel as a downtrodden drudge to something like Medea or La Belle Dame Sans Merci. Yet we have pity for her when she tries to re-establish a bond with her highly troubled daughter. All of the personalities are carefully drawn in depth. Not one is a stereotype, and each has a compelling part to play.

I thoroughly enjoyed this tightly plotted psychological thriller and look forward to future books by Julia Parsons.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars gripping, September 25, 2001

By 

David M. Scott "David Meerman Scott" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eager to Please (Hardcover)

Irish psychological suspense master Julie Parsons has written another winner with "Eager to Please," her third novel. This title is sure to gain as much critical acclaim as earlier efforts "Mary, Mary" and "The Courtship Gift". "Eager to Please," just like Parsons' earlier efforts, holds the reader in its grip from the beginning.

Rachel Beckett tentatively returns to the strangeness, the joys and the loneliness of freedom after twelve years in prison. Living as an outcast, but constantly watched by her parole officer, Rachel begins to slowly pick herself up. Her seventeen-year-old daughter Amy, just like the long-ago jury, is convinced that Rachel was indeed her father's murderer.

But Rachel has had more than a decade to plan revenge. And she's learned from the best. In prison, from the outcasts and hoodlums she did time with, she's learned tricks and techniques, plotting a fantastic revenge on the real killer.

Throughout the early parts of the book, we're inside Rachel's head as she returns to life on the outside. The inner psychological drama, while deftly handled, wasn't as appealing as the fast-paced, cat-and-mouse suspense of the latter half. As the real killer and the one who went to prison for a crime she didn't commit match wits, the pages turn and the heart thumps.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Implausible, disappointing, January 27, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Eager to Please (Hardcover)

I loved MARY, MARY, Julie Parsons's first novel, so much that I read it twice. Her second book, THE COURTSHIP GIFT, was a letdown. And EAGER TO PLEASE is a disappointment on almost every level -- except that of writing style, which is excellent. This book takes forever to get started; for more than 100 pages virtually no forward movement takes place. Instead, the reader is served the same backstory in several different forms, and forced to watch as Rachel, the central character, moves with little purpose through her first days after release from prison. Rachel, convicted of a murder she didn't commit, is sympathetic at first, but once she sets her revenge plot in motion -- and makes use of innocent children and their innocent mother in the process -- she becomes repugnant. Her brother-in-law Daniel, the object of her vengeful scheming, rarely does anything that makes sense. I was constantly asking, "Why on earth is the man doing that?" and was never provided with answers. And Rachel's revenge is based on such a threadbare, B-movie concept that I was disappointed by the writer's lack of imagination. MARY, MARY is also a story of revenge, but written with much more imagination and flare. Julie Parsons writes beautifully, but this is probably the last of her books I will bother to read.