Customer Reviews

The Gemini Game

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Although less known and less complicated than her bestselling romantic thrillers,"The Splendour Falls", "the Shadowy Horses" and "Marianna", "The Gemini Game" offers a well-crafted story in less than 200 pages.

After eight years building a career in Pittsburg, Karen Caldwell arrives back at her South Carolina home after receiving an anonymous telegram pleading for her return. One of her older twin brothers, Alex, killed in a tragic automobile accident leaves the family circling like buzzards over the remains of the family estate, a wealthy racehorse stud and training farm. Imagine when out of the blue, after eight long years away, Karen steps back into their lives and inherits the property and the 14 million dollars that goes with it.

Suddenly, Karen finds herself in the center of unwanted attention, particularly male attention. When she finds herself falling in love, Karen must factor her newfound wealth into her analysis of her true feelings. In addition to this, she realizes that before Alex's death, he and his twin Nick were playing what they called, "the Gemini Game", a game where they switched places just for fun . . . as she wrestles with the game's implications, she discovers that her inheritance has put her own life in jeopardy . . .

As you can see, this novel includes all the right ingredients for a few hours of escapist reading. Although Kearsley's more recent novels contain more complicated plot twists and some elements of the supernatural, her talent shines through in this smaller work. Immediately the character of Karen engages; Kearsley's knack of making the ordinary come to life works well with her sense of timing and story-telling ability. Recommended for all Susanna Kearsley fans as they await her next bestseller.

I recently read The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley, and fell in love with her writing. Eager to read more of her books, I picked up this one. Alas, the writing was almost unrecognizable as belonging to the excellent author of The Shadowy Horses.

The Gemini Game has none of the "British accent" that has characterized the other two books I've read by Kearsley. This book is set in the U.S. and has a completely American tone. That is not necessarily a bad thing, just distinctly different from what fans of Kearsley might expect after reading her other books. Also, this is a very short book, less than 200 pages.

Perhaps the shortness of the book might account for the lack of plot and setting development. However, I don't think it can be blamed for the stereotypical characters and contrived feel of the storyline. When Karen Caldwell returns to her family's ranch after an absence of 8 years, one of the people she re-meets is Greg Slater, the stable manager. Sparks immediately begin to fly between them over the most ridiculous trivialities -- they respond to each other like a couple of teenagers, rather than adults. Ok, so that's a dead giveaway that they're going to end up together.

Then there's the over-the-top hostility between all the members of Karen's family. Karen's venomous aunt tells her she'd better update her will, warning that "accidents do happen, you know." And then Karen's brother tells her that her other brother (his twin), after experiencing numerous small accidents, realized someone was out to kill him. Just like that. No fear, just completely matter-of-fact. Um, right, isn't that what every millionaire heir surrounded by hostile relatives would conclude?

I suspect that this book may have been written for a young adult audience. Especially given that it was published by a different company than who publishes Kearsey's other books. Young adults more than likely wouldn't be troubled by such lack of subtleties as fill this book.

Others who may want to read this are die-hard Susanna Kearsey fans who want to read everything she's ever written. If that doesn't describe you, and you're over the age of, say, 14, then I suggest skipping this book.