The Abortionist's Daughter (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: Jack Fries, Bill Branson, Diana Duprey (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Dr. Diana Duprey—abortion clinic director, wife of local Colorado DA Frank Thompson and mother of 19-year-old college freshman Megan—has plenty of enemies, so when her body is found floating in the exercise pool of her garden tour–featured house, the list of suspects is long. Aside from abortion opponents and distraught parents, there were the arguments overheard between Frank and Diana, and Megan and Diana shortly before. The coroner, a woman with whom Frank had had an affair, won't do the autopsy, and a man harboring a grudge against Frank takes her place. Meanwhile, Megan finds herself attracted to Huck Berlin, the policeman assigned to the case, and Huck finds Megan in various compromising positions. Former U.S. attorney Hyde (Crazy as Chocolate) describes Megan's contradictory, confused emotions without oversimplification ("Have fun killing babies" were Megan's inadvertent last words to her mother). Hyde also jumps back in time, delving into Diana's work at the clinic and her feelings about it, as well as the lives and feelings of her clients. Rather than generating suspense, the murder provides a frame for the turbulence in and around a woman propelled by idealism and strongly held beliefs. Look for this book to get play as South Dakota's challenge to Roe v. Wade wends through the courts. 150,000 announced first printing.(June 23)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From The Washington Post

Were it not for its fully realized characters and crisp prose, one might be tempted to see The Abortionist's Daughter as just another legal thriller for the beach. The elements are all there: a murder victim who was an outspoken abortion doctor; her attorney husband, who seems the most likely suspect; a daughter with whom the doctor had, at best, a bristly relationship; an antiabortion minister who may also have had a personal vendetta against the doctor; and the daughter's spurned lover, who appears to be dangerously disturbed.

Yet it is precisely Elisabeth Hyde's arresting prose and astute observations about family life that elevate her fourth novel to domestic tragedy. Any writer who can describe a hit on the head as a "bruise [that] was huge and ripe and living, a fat, blue-gray slug in her tangled hair," or who begins a novel with the delicious complication of a daughter who has just taken her second hit of ecstasy before picking up the phone to hear that her mother has drowned in the pool, has a talent for the closely observed detail as well as a keen sense of human failings.

With 20 years of experience as a prosecuting attorney, Frank Thompson knows better than to start tampering with evidence. Understandably, though, he doesn't have his wits about him the day his wife is found dead. "Frank Thompson couldn't tell if it was the reflection of pool water bouncing off the windows, or the shriek of his daughter over the phone, or the flapping sound of the sheet as the paramedics covered his wife that made his legs begin to wobble and shake. All he knew was that the ground beneath him was falling out from under, and he had to get down, fast, or he was going to be sick."

He fears that the shards from a glass shattered during a fight with his wife the afternoon of the murder will look bad. Predictably, he removes them, and, predictably, he doesn't get them all. Because his house has become a crime scene, he and his daughter, Megan, who has come home from college after hearing the news, must find other housing and share a life together -- even though he has found compromising pictures of Megan on the Internet and Megan has begun to suspect her father.

Across town, the Rev. Steven O'Connell, self-righteous spokesman for a coalition of antiabortion activists, discovers that he still has a pressing debate with the late Dr. Duprey on his hands: Rose, a 15-year-old pregnant girl, who had been seen and counseled by Dr. Duprey, takes up residence with the O'Connells. Branson, Megan's old boyfriend, starts stalking her, while Huck, the detective on the case, develops a relationship with her that threatens his job. It's enough domestic entanglement for Jane Austen on speed.

What works best in this novel is not the issue of abortion (duly presented and dissected from both sides) nor the revelation of the murderer but the family backstories, which reveal Hyde at her best. The dialogue between Megan and her mother is biting, edgy and dismayingly real. "Have fun killing babies," Megan tosses off as a parting zinger the last time she sees her mother. So, too, are the flashback scenes between Frank and his wife, a couple on the brink of divorce. Their fights have at times escalated to brief flurries of violent behavior. "Frank wheeled around and grabbed her arms and shook her once, hard, so that her neck snapped back. It was the second time that day someone had done this to her."

Unfortunately, the novel starts to break down about three-quarters of the way through. Readers who begin The Abortionist's Daughter with the heart-pumping thought, "This is going to be good," may find that the book's prose loses its edge near the close. Perhaps it is a consequence of the horse nearing the barn; perhaps it is simply inexperience. In either case, Hyde is an author who should be with us for some time. One hopes that this good writer will learn how to sustain her edge from the first word until the very last.

Reviewed by Anita Shreve
Copyright 2006, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (June 12, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307276414
• ISBN-13: 978-0307276414
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #342,242 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling but ultimately distancing novel, July 10, 2006

By	Chick with Book - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Abortionist's Daughter (Hardcover)

The title of THE ABORTIONIST'S DAUGHTER suggests that the novel will center on Megan, a Colorado college student who comes from a local prominent family. Not only does her mother run the local abortion clinic, but her father is on the DA's staff. But for all their upper middle class affluence (they even have a lap pool with a motor-generated current against which to swim), the family is touched by tragedy. Megan's younger brother Ben, born with Down's Syndrome, died ten years ago at the age of four.

But while Megan does play an important role, the novel is far from just her story. On a December evening, a few weeks before Christmas, Dr. Diana Duprey is found dead in her lap pool. She has a direct line to the police department because so many threats have been made against her, but she also puts her house on an annual home design tour. Therefore, the people who had access to case her house are unlimited in number. She was seen in the company of a local religious right leader, against whom she has a restraining order, earlier that day. Her neighbor heard her engage in a screaming match with her husband, Frank, that afternoon. The local coroner takes herself off the case because she had an affair, years ago, with Frank. So just who did kill the abortionist?

While the murder mystery provides the framework for the story, the novel is much more than a whodunit. It flashes backwards as needed, slowly providing the clues needed to recreate Diana's last day, the events leading up to her murder, and the effect it has had not only on her daughter and husband, but the greater community as a whole. The slow unpeeling of the layers makes for compelling reading, and the revelations are well-paced.

However, this is a not a character study. While there are some beautifully drawn characters in the novel, the writer's use of omniscient POV keeps the reader at a distance and we never get to know the characters intimately. Therefore, the impact of Diana's death, while acknowledged, is not really felt. Diana herself is the novel's most intriguing and vivid character, and one almost wishes that the author had discarded the mystery and focused on the living Diana, her conflicts and ambiguities. Here is a woman who provides abortions (reset buttons, she calls them) yet chooses to keep her Down's Syndrome baby, only to lose him at the age of four. She is far more interesting than Megan, who is your average mixed-up teenager rebelling against her parents and upbringing.

Still, THE ABORTIONIST'S DAUGHTER is a beautifully written book that keeps the reader turning pages.

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A thoroughly engrossing novel on topics ranging from family relations to parent-child relations to love affairs to true crime, June 20, 2006

By	Jessica Lux (Rosamond, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Abortionist's Daughter (Hardcover)

At its core, The Abortionist's Daughter is a mystery novel, but I wouldn't dare cheapen it by assigning a genre label. This is modern literary fiction at its best, with reflections on a marriage between two high-profile professionals, on the trials of raising a special needs child, on raising a teenaged daughter, and, of course, on the ethics of abortion.

The plot centers on the bludgeoning death of famed abortion doctor Diane Duprey. An outspoken activist, Duprey had garnered plenty of attention and a few public enemies in her two-decade career. She had a laundry list of restraining orders. On the other hand, her husband, the district attorney, had a violent temper, and the neighbors have heard their glass-shattering fights over the years. All of this leaves Dr, Duprey's college-age daughter, Megan, with a host of unanswered questions, including suspicions about her own father's whereabouts on the night of her mother's murder. Megan also has her own personal and romantic life to deal with, in addition to the complete upheaval of her family situation.

Author Elizabeth Hyde delivers a subtle twist in the murder of Diane Duprey, but it is only one of a half-dozen low-key (and entirely plausible) twists in the lives of this small Northeastern town. The outspoken pro-choice Reverend has several of his own skeletons in the closet, Dr. Duprey had recently violated her own retraining order to have conversations with the Reverend, Dr. Duprey's husband refuses to disclose his activities in the hours preceding his wife's death, there is a scandalous affair in the past history of the husband and wife, a cop is accused of questionable behavior with a witness, and daughter Megan has used questionable judgement in dealing with an ex-boyfriend.

This is a thoroughly engrossing novel that addresses a spectrum of topics from family relations to parent-child relations to love affairs to true crime. While the slant of the book is decidedly favorable to a pro-choice viewpoint, the anti-choice perspective is also portrayed in an objective and thought-provoking manner. Fans of this book may enjoy the movie Vera Drake, which is similarly philosophical on the topic of abortion.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Mystery, And Much More, June 20, 2006

By	R.A. Hart (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Abortionist's Daughter (Hardcover)

Super book! "The Abortionist's Daughter" is engaging on many levels. It's an engrossing murder mystery that keeps you guessing to the end, but it's also much more. The characters are vividly drawn, the human relationships complex, and the dialogue rings true. And parts are very funny. The characters you'd expect in any mystery - the police detective, district attorney, forensics expert, distraught family members, etc - are deep and complicated. In the course of unfolding the mystery, Elisabeth Hyde examines and dissects the parent-teen relationship, angst of young adults, strained marriages, and the fragile line between love and loneliness.

I've read and enjoyed all of Hyde's previous books, but this one may be her best.