8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good Venue, Satisfying Plot, But Lots of Clutter, January 29, 2002
By now y'all know Mary Higgins Clark is the ex-mother-in-law of our author here, Mary Jane Clark. Many speak to the similarities of style -- a dashing (and gorgeous wholesome single mom, young widow, and accomplished professional) leading lady who overcomes all odds; enough violence and suspense to entertain and befuddle; and a nice clean ending we can all feel good about. Well hopefully that could be said about many a good book. The differences I see are more interesting. First the venue -- set mostly in the surrounds of a major news network, midst the tribulations of the early morning shows and anchor broadcasts at night, we certainly get (ala the movie "Network News") plenty of up close looks at the pressured lives on the news set. In the best tradition of write about what you know about, MJ speaks from personal experience as a producer and writer for CBS News. Indeed, Dan Rather gets a cameo mention in the story, as he does in the acknowledgments up front for his encouragement to the author. I just hope the romances reported among many co-workers aren't quite that prevalent, although as we know, propinquity is a powerful force (said Zelda to Dobie...).
Second, we get a pretty good story line. The first shocker is the apparent suicide of a famous anchor, followed thereafter (but paced well) by the murders of his doctor and his secretary. Even the most dense of us realize the connections, though the trained newshounds seemed to miss it. A big surprise at the end serves up a murderer I dare say few suspected more than a page or two before the unveiling, so high marks for suspense.
Third, and of course not as welcome, we do get an awful lot of characters, relationships, AIDS pleas, disease causes, snippets of events, changes in scenery, etc.; to me, all that clutter gets a little tiresome. Certain loose ends never do get wrapped up, and I'm not even sure that a major subplot, the campaign machinations of a presidential candidate, really advanced the basic story line that well. I also personally disliked chopping the book up into 141 (!) chapters - do the math, they span 302 pages, so that's like two pages each. And the last 35 span only 25 pages, so we're down to barely more than the "sound bites" so lovingly quoted throughout.
So - for her first outing (of four to date), not bad. Clean things up, simplify a little, give us a little longer reading stretch with out raising and lowering the curtain a hundred times, and we might have something here. I'll at least move on to number 2 - "Do you promise not to tell?". And you?
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another Mary Higgins Clark, December 23, 2003
By A Customer
I was at a book sale when I spotted Mary Jane's 3 first novels. I decided to buy them because I had read all of Mary Higgins Clark's novels and Mary Jane's books reminded me of Mary Higgins Clark. I decided, why not, the worst that can happen is that it is a boring book and the best that could happen is that I discover another great author like Mary Higgins Clark, James Patterson and Philip Margolin. Was I glad I did. This first novel was a bit slow at the beginning but it had enough suspense to keep me reading and the ending surprised me. I was happy to find out that Mary Jane has quick, snappy diaglogue with a mix of characters that keeps you guessing. Needless to say, her writing keeps getting better. Yep, the other two books were even better.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
GOOD SUSPENSEFUL BOOK, August 13, 2000
Eliza Blake, tv anchorwoman , is grieving over the death of her husband when her news partner, Bill Kendall, is found dead, apparently a suicide..........or was it???? Everyone has secrets to hide in this book, and the author knows how to play with our emotions..........I found this to be a realistic and exciting read, packed with twists and surprises....reminiscent of her (ex) mother-in-law, the great Mary Higgins Clark! Enjoy yourself with this one....she's an author to watch for!!
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