SHINING THROUGH

by Susan Isaacs ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 24, 1988

Isaacs' first throe novels (Compromising Positions, Close Relations, and Almost Paradise) were variably successful experiments in women's commercial fiction. This time, though, she's got the formula just right--from her evocative re-creation of the WW II era to her funny, tough, and tender heroine to her larger-than-life plot. Isaacs pockets readers' affections right off with her portrait of Linda Voss, a 30-year-old bilingual secretary at a Wall Street law firm, hopelessly in love with her boss--the handsome and a-little-too-charming John Berringer. Only when his equally perfect wife, Nan, runs off with another man does John notice Linda behind her steno pad. Their sexual relationship is sizzling hot, but when Linda gets pregnant, honorable John marries her while admitting that he still loves Nan. Warns Linda's mom, a sad but wise drunk, ""Baby, watch out for him. . . Deep down, he's a rat."" Meanwhile, Linda, who speaks German, is enlisted to help powerhouse lawyer Edward Leland (Nan's dad) with covert efforts to verify the allegiances of German counterspies. Leland and Linda hit it off, even after she miscarries and John starts playing around with Nan again. Distraught over John's desertion, Linda volunteers to go to Berlin as a spy, where she serves as a cook in the household of a top Nazi, reading documents and passing information to the underground. But then things go awry, and Linda must get out of Germany fast. Just when it looks as if she won't, Leland shows up--Leland, a truly honorable man, who (it turns out) has loved Linda all along. Shining through everywhere are Isaacs' talents for smart dialogue and satire (leveled against hoity-toity Ivy League lawyers and their wives) and her instinctive love for the underdog. Espionage aficionados may cavil at the lack of subtleties, but most everyone else will put things off to get back to this book.

Pub Date: Aug. 24, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1988

Categories: FICTION