The capable, attractive, widowed, filthy-rich head of emergency medicine at a Manhattan hospital battles a serial murderer, a mugger, nocturnal intruders, recurring nightmares, and departmentally threatening budget cuts. And, of course, there are boyfriend problems. Spruill also wrote Painkiller, 1990; Paradox Planet, 1988, etc. Her townhouse is on the right side of the park; her housekeeper is a trusted friend; her daughters are future Nobel laureates; her lover has the cleverest relaxation tricks; and she expects to inherit a fortune—but life is no bed of roses for Amy St. Clair, M.D.. Dr. Clair keeps having the same goofy dream, and while she's having the goofy dream, she's pretty sure somebody's bypassing the burglar alarm and wandering through the house. At work, meanwhile, there's this problem with otherwise healthy, tall, upper-middle-aged, blue-eyed bankers who drop dead in Amy's emergency room—the very same emergency room targeted for elimination by a heartless hospital administration, even though Amy's otherwise healthy, tall, upper-middle-aged, blue-eyed banker father has brought millions and millions of dollars to the institution. And talk about an eerie coincidence: the daughter of one of the rich dead banker victims turns out to have the same creepy nightmares as Amy. Can Amy find help from handsome staff psychologist and paramour Tom Hart, Ph.D? He's done such great things for her brain-injured brother. Or should she turn to new staff surgeon Dr. Otis ``Campy'' Camp? Twenty years ago, ``Campy'' was the love of her life, but then he was swallowed up by Vietnam. He never wrote, but he's still quite handsome. Slick and readable, but despite all the menace, there's not a real chill anywhere. Readers are likely to find themselves counting coincidences when they should have been too scared to notice.
Pub Date: April 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-312-06910-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1992
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of...
Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah’s maudlin latest (Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State.
Tallulah “Tully” Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Tully takes refuge with the family of her “best friend forever,” Kate Mularkey, who compares herself unfavorably with Tully, in regards to looks and charisma. In college, “TullyandKate” pledge the same sorority and major in communications. Tully has a life goal for them both: They will become network TV anchorwomen. Tully lands an internship at KCPO-TV in Seattle and finagles a producing job for Kate. Kate no longer wishes to follow Tully into broadcasting and is more drawn to fiction writing, but she hesitates to tell her overbearing friend. Meanwhile a love triangle blooms at KCPO: Hard-bitten, irresistibly handsome, former war correspondent Johnny is clearly smitten with Tully. Expecting rejection, Kate keeps her infatuation with Johnny secret. When Tully lands a reporting job with a Today-like show, her career shifts into hyperdrive. Johnny and Kate had started an affair once Tully moved to Manhattan, and when Kate gets pregnant with daughter Marah, they marry. Kate is content as a stay-at-home mom, but frets about being Johnny’s second choice and about her unrealized writing ambitions. Tully becomes Seattle’s answer to Oprah. She hires Johnny, which spells riches for him and Kate. But Kate’s buttons are fully depressed by pitched battles over slutwear and curfews with teenaged Marah, who idolizes her godmother Tully. In an improbable twist, Tully invites Kate and Marah to resolve their differences on her show, only to blindside Kate by accusing her, on live TV, of overprotecting Marah. The BFFs are sundered. Tully’s latest attempt to salvage Cloud fails: The incorrigible, now geriatric hippie absconds once more. Just as Kate develops a spine, she’s given some devastating news. Will the friends reconcile before it’s too late?
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of poignancy.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-36408-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2007
BOOK TO SCREEN
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