From Publishers Weekly
In this first-rate suspense novel from the author of Painkiller , physician Amy St. Clair, the widowed mother of two young children, has several problems. The cost-cutting officials of her New York hospital want to shut down the emergency operating room she heads, and she is being followed and threatened by a mysterious man. The affair she has begun with the psychologist who is treating her brain-damaged brother is complicated by the appearance of her long-lost first love. Amid indications that someone is prowling her home at night, she is haunted by nightmares that suggest she is repressing an awful memory. After the father of a friend from prep school unexpectedly dies of a heart attack in the ER, Amy learns that her friend has been having the same nightmare; soon she begins to suspect that her own wealthy father might be a candidate for a similar "heart attack." Spruill mixes these elements and many others, including a missing Aztec statue, into a marvelous tale of mystery and menace that neither telegraphs its secrets nor falters in its pace.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Amy St. Clair, head of Hudson General's emergency room, is experiencing a recurring nightmare. She wanders dark woods, a child again, as a voice demands, "Tell me what you see." She is also being stalked by an unknown man. Meanwhile, officious hospital administrators threaten to close her unlucrative Emergency Room, just as she notices a disturbing trend in cardiac deaths among men who all fit the physical profile of her own father. The similarities point to a serial murderer, though Amy can't imagine how the deaths are being caused. Struggling with these seemingly unrelated crises, Amy is faced with a romantic one, too, when an old sweetheart joins Hudson General's staff. Though he is as loving as he was in high school, his years in Vietnam have given him a dark side which Amy cannot fathom. His appearance now may be one coincidence too many. An excellent suspense novel with a strong, intelligent heroine, Before I Wake (by the author of Painkiller , LJ 4/1/90) is sure to be popular with readers of medi cal and psychological thrillers.
- A.M.B. Amantia, Population Crisis Committee Lib., Washington, D.C.Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
