From Publishers Weekly
Set against the backdrop of the battle for abortion rights, this timely but stilted debut thriller features a perfect yuppie couple. Michael Knowles is a successful OB-GYN and his wife, Annie, is a popular journalism professor; they have two precious kids and a big, airy home in upstate New York. But once Michael accepts a position at the only abortion clinic in town, the already heavy strain that his doctor's schedule puts on their marriage sends Annie into the arms of a colleague, notorious painter Simon Haas. Meanwhile, Michael receives increasingly hostile threats from creepy antiabortion activists, suggesting that one, or both, of the Knowles are targets of a vicious terror campaign. The painter's childlike young wife, Lydia, as a menacing, tormented Bible-thumper scarred by a harsh, loveless upbringing, is the enigma that fuels Brundage's examination of what happens when we are drawn to the very things that promise to destroy us. But the lessons here are heavy-handed and the characterizations mechanical. The bad guys wear mirrored sunglasses as they force Michael off the road; the good guys wear jackets emblazoned with angel's wings; and the dialogue is delivered in short sound bites scripted for a TV cliffhanger. The Knowles' storybook marriage takes a number of dark, twisted turns, but the lack of character nuance and depth blunt Brundage's stab at psychological suspense.
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From Booklist
The prologue to this compelling novel consists of the murder confession of an obviously unhinged person. So, from the first sentence, readers are hooked--and stay hooked till the end. The plot centers on two marriages and the flaws within them that lead to disaster. Michael and Annie Knowles have a seemingly perfect marriage; Simon and Lydia Hass quite obviously do not. When Michael, an obstetrician, agrees to do abortions part-time at a free clinic in Albany, New York, he starts a chain of events that shatters both couples' lives. The complex, cleverly constructed narrative provides a slow unfolding of the intricate relationships among the characters. Third-person narration, rotating point of view, and skillful use of flashback gradually construct the anatomy of a catastrophe and provide suspense, momentum, and believable characters. This page-turner will appeal to a broad readership and will do well in public libraries with audiences as diverse as Ruth Rendell fans, lovers of Rosellen Brown's
Before and After (1992), and those who could not put down Stephen King's
Delores Claibourne (1992).
Ellen LoughranCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
--Ce texte provient d'une édition qui n'est plus publiée ou qui est non diponible.