An overweight cop with a heart problem pursues a series of suspicious suicides among the elderly of Palm Springs, Calif., in Neiderman's ( Someone's Watching ) less than enthralling crime novel. Against the advice of his wife, his physician and his superiors, Frankie Samuels, on medical leave, keeps current on a pattern of local deaths in which the demise of a terminally ill, usually elderly person is soon followed by the suicide of the grieving spouse. Frankie determines that in most cases the ill partner had been cared for by private duty nurse Faye Sullivan; readers know early that Faye's twin sister Susie has volunteered to comfort the bereaved. Frankie confronts Faye and in the process has a heart attack, leaving him at her mercy. Besides Frankie's pleasantly flawed character, no further surprises redeem Neiderman's predictable plot.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
When special-duty nurse Faye Sullivan's elderly patients die, her twin sister, Susie, helps the surviving spouses with cleaning and general care. Susie also ensures that, before too much time passes, they join their loved ones in the next life. Investigating a rash of suicides among older widows and widowers, police detective Frankie Samuels links the deaths to Faye. Neiderman's thriller is disappointing: Faye and Susie aren't terribly interesting characters, and the suspense is pretty much lacking. More critically, the novel's slight, somewhat hackneyed plot hinges on a "surprise" ending that the astute reader will have figured out in the first few pages. Not recommended.
Eric W. Johnson, Teikyo Post Univ. Lib., Waterbury, Ct.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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