Review
Katherine Fraser, happily married for ten years to businessman Craig, a mother of two in Vancouver, gets a rude shock one day. Craig, off on a business-trip, simply doesn't return. Worse yet, it appears that he was secretly embezzling big bucks from his company. Worse yet, Katherine then gets a visit from San Francisco's Ross Hay-ward - who has recognized a newspaper photo of Craig Fraser: he is really Craig Hay-ward, a Frisco heir who disappeared years ago after a mysterious/traumatic boating accident in which Craig's sister Jennifer died! Unsurprisingly, then, Katherine's in a terrible state: not only is she husband-deserted and financially shaky, but she's also in a stew about the fact that she never knew the man she was married to all those years. And the rich, snooty Hayward family is only half-sympathetic to this suddenly acquired daughter-in-law and grandchildren - so Katherine at first snubs them right back. She does, however, move to San Francisco, after selling her beloved house. Thanks to old chum Leslie (a department store VP), Katherine gets a job - and starts developing her talent for jewelry design. Slowly, too, she begins looking at men, trying to forget fugitive Craig - who sends money occasionally and even makes one phantom-like appearance. ("I don't have to live like a prisoner while I'm waiting for Craig.") Suitor #1: Craig's suave cousin Derek (Ross' hated brother), a George Sanders type who arouses Katherine. . . but only briefly. ("She did not need him. She was free.") Suitor #2: cousin Ross, ill-treated by his wife - who turns out to be the real thing, with hot consummation on a trip to France. So, though Craig's sins will momentarily impede Katherine's jewelry career, she'll learn to live without him, to be "a whole person by myself". . . while both Leslie and Ross overcome business-problems in dull subplots. ("Derek could no longer touch him; he was free.") Modestly presented, this variation on an old gothic/romance formula - with some nice specifics in the jewelry biz - might have been pleasant. Here, stretched out to an enervating 416 pages, it's slow, implausible at every turn, and pastily written (by the husband/wife team responsible for the livelier Deceptions). (Kirkus Reviews)
Product Description
Katherine and Craig Fraser had shared ten golden years together, and they were still very much in love. Then one day Craig vanished leaving Katherine with two children, no job, no money, and the discovery that her husband had been leading a double life.
