The Other Side of Midnight [Paperback]

Sidney Sheldon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1998

In Paris, Washington, and at a breathtaking villa in Greece, an innocent American becomes a bewildered, horror-stricken pawn in a game of vengeance and betrayal, in this paperback reissue of Sheldon's #1 bestseller.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A master storyteller. --Daily Mail

Sheldon is a writer working at the height of his power. --New York Times --Reviews --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

About the Author

Best known today for his exciting blockbuster novels, Sidney Sheldon is the author of The Best Laid Plans, Nothing Lasts Forever, The Stars Shine Down, The Doomsday Conspiracy, Memories of Midnight, The Sands of Time, Windmills of the Gods, If Tomorrow Comes, Master of the Game, Rage of Angels, Bloodline, A Stranger in the Mirror, and The Other Side of Midnight. Almost all have been number-one international bestsellers. His first book, The Naked Face, was acclaimed by the New York Times as "the best first mystery of the year" and received an Edgar Award. Most of his novels have become major feature films or TV miniseries, and there are more than 275 million copies of his books in print throughout the world. Before he became a novelist, Sidney Sheldon had already won a Tony Award for Broadway's Redhead and an Academy Award for The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer. He has written the screenplays for twenty-three motion pictures, including Easter Parade (with Judy Garland) and Annie Get Your Gun. In addition, he penned six other Broadway hits and created three long-running television series, including Hart to Hart and I Dream of Jeannie, which he also produced. A writer who has delighted millions with his award-winning plays, movies, novels, and television shows, Sidney Sheldon reigns as one of the most popular storytellers of all time.

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (August 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446674680
• ISBN-13: 978-0446674683
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,341,417 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Best known today for his exciting blockbuster novels, Sidney Sheldon is the author of The Best Laid Plans, Nothing Lasts Forever, The Stars Shine Down, The Doomsday Conspiracy, Memories of Midnight, The Sands of Time, Windmills of the Gods, If Tomorrow Comes, Master of the Game, Rage of Angels, Bloodline, A Stranger in the Mirror, and The Other Side of Midnight. Almost all have been number-one international bestsellers. His first book, The Naked Face, was acclaimed by the New York Times as "the best first mystery of the year" and received an Edgar Award. Most of his novels have become major feature films or TV miniseries, and there are more than 275 million copies of his books in print throughout the world.

Before he became a novelist, Sidney Sheldon had already won a Tony Award for Broadway's Redhead and an Academy Award for The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer. He has written the screenplays for twenty-three motion pictures, including Easter Parade (with Judy Garland) and Annie Get Your Gun. In addition, he penned six other Broadway hits and created three long-running television series, including Hart to Hart and I Dream of Jeannie, which he also produced. A writer who has delighted millions with his award-winning plays, movies, novels, and television shows, Sidney Sheldon reigns as one of the most popular storytellers of all time.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Both sides are snazzy, April 2, 2001

By 

Michael Dickson "To improve is to change. To ... (Patzcuaro, Michoacan, Mexico) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Other Side of Midnight (Mass Market Paperback)

OK, here's a book you'll like. I have just two complaints, and I'll get them out of the way quickly: 1. The sex scenes are hokey. And 2. At one point a horde of bats attack our heroine in a cave. Not likely. We don't need more bad publicity for our furry, little friends. Almost all of them mind their own business, and they are vital to the ecosystem. Even vampires sneak up on their sleeping victims. They do not attack en masse.

But, I digress...our cast includes Catherine Alexander, a good, beautiful, naive woman; Noelle Page, a bad, beautiful woman, really dreadful; Bill Fraser, a great guy who deflowers young Catherine (but that's OK with her); Larry Douglas, a debonair flyboy with nary a scruple in his handsome head; and Constantin Demiris, a Greek billionaire with a definite taste for revenge! I'll say no more.

Here's the deal: Catherine and Noelle are both born in 1919. Catherine, from Chicago, grows to young adulthood, somewhat naive.

Noelle, from Marseille, France, grows to young adulthood somewhat naive too, but early on she falls in love with Douglas, who inadvertently twists her. He beds her and dumps her, and she never recovers. She turns into a cold-hearted Harpy...plotting revenge for years! Catherine, on the other hand, falls in love with an older man, Fraser, a stolid Washington bigwig, but she too later falls under the hypnotic spell of the devilishly passionate Douglas who, by the way, is an ace fighter pilot in WWII. How romantic for a tender, impressionable young woman! No wonder they can't resist: a fighter pilot with handsome, chiseled features and a devil-may-care attitude. A male fatale.

OK, so we have parallel stories for a while. Caring Catherine and Fraser in Washington. Noxious Noelle, who becomes a famous actress with a string of influential lovers, in Europe. But remember this: Noelle is plotting revenge on Douglas, the cad. Noelle finally takes up with Demiris, and maneuvers Douglas into being hired as the Greek's personal pilot. At this point, the two stories move closer, ending in Greece, spiraling down a slippery slope of murder schemes, failed plots, romantic nights, successful plots, mountains in the clouds, rickety foot-bridges, bottomless volcanic lakes, terror in dark caves, hokey sex, stunning Mediterranean vistas...all that stuff.

It's a well-crafted yarn, and it has a dilly of an ending. Certainly blindsided me. Probably will do the same for you, but maybe you're sharper than I am. It's possible.

We have some good secondary characters, the best of whom is Colonel Mueller, a bald, albino, homosexual Gestapo officer. Unlike everybody else, he was not blinded by Noelle's charms. Of course not, he's gay. Did she escape his clutches? You'll just have to read the book and see. I recommend it to you. Trust me on this.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a work that comes alive, October 16, 2002

By 

Barbara R. Saunders "Writer" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Other Side of Midnight (Mass Market Paperback)

I read The Other Side of Midnight in 8th grade -- about 25 years ago. It was all the rage with the girls in my class. Until recently, I would have dismissed our interest as teenage morbid laciviousness. Now, I believe the book is just one of those works of magic that "come alive," regardless of "literary merit" or "socially reedeming value."

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE classic Sidney Sheldon novel, November 4, 2004

By 

Kona (Emerald City) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: The Other Side of Midnight (Mass Market Paperback)

This is Sidney Sheldon at his best, writing about romantic entanglements, reverses of fortune, thrilling suspense, and ultimate justice. Beautiful but poor Parisiene Noelle Page falls madly in love with American flyer Larry Douglas during WWII. When she becomes pregnant, he deserts her, thus setting her on a path of revenge that consumes her very being. Ruthlessly driven, she becomes a supermodel, movie star, and finally, as mistress to mega-rich Constantin Demiris, Noelle is reunited with Larry. Will she make him pay for what he did to her... or will she fall under his spell again?

Noelle, Larry, and his innocent wife, Catherine, are such fascinating, memorable characters that you won't want to stop reading until you find out what happens to them next. The story takes us from a poor French fishing village to Paris, then Hollywood and Athens, and the excitement keeps building and building as Noelle comes closer to tying up lose ends with the dastardly Larry, who proves to be her match when it comes to plotting evil. But don't underestimate Noelle's lover, Demiris, who will use all of his resources to get what he wants.

While this novel is enjoyable on its own, the story continues in Sheldon's "Memories of Midnight."

Kona