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Overview
Someone is stalking Cassandra Swann, bridge instructor and co-owner of a new bridge supply business. He drives a white Peugeot and turns up just when she least expects him - outside the library, inside the supermarket, in the car park. He's even there when she leaves the hospital after visiting her friend, Naomi Harris. Naomi, too, has her troubles. She has just undergone a hysterectomy, ending any chance she and her husband had to conceive a child. She has another little problem, also: she believes her husband wants to kill her. The puzzle deepens when John calls her one day during a business trip to Scotland to ask her to go to his house to check on his wife. Naomi has failed to answer the telephone, and Cassie soon discovers the reason. While probing for the truth behind the Harris facade, Cassie must deal with her battle of the bulge and try to keep her unwelcome admirer, Charlie Quartermaine, at a proper distance. Given half a chance, or even a nod, Charlie would ingratiate himself back into her life, which is not where Cassie wants him to be. Or does she?Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Bridge instructor Cassandra Swann, busy setting up a bridge-supply business in the bucolic Cotswolds, is drawn reluctantly into investigating the death of acquaintance Naomi Harris, whose decomposed body was found in the trunk of her car. An explicit note, a history of depression and an empty bottle of pills all point to suicide. But, before dying, Naomi told Cassie that she feared her husband was going to kill her. As this leisurely and sometimes perplexing novel points out, far too many suspects exist. Cassie herself is vulnerable, insecure and easily manipulated, but she still gingerly interviews her prime suspect, Naomi's husband, whose business is foundering and who now stands to inherit a tidy sum. She also discreetly questions Lucy, Naomi's daughter who was given away at birth over 20 years ago and is only now making an appearance. There's an avalanche of suspects-nasty family members, a current lover, an indiscreet solicitor-and each has a disturbing agenda and background. On top of this, Cassie is being stalked by an unknown person who has almost certainly vandalized her fledgling business. Her point of reference, her bridge expertise, is never utilized-a good, swift game would have made a fine addition. Too many red herrings and an unwieldy cast make Cassie's fifth appearance (after the splendid King of Hearts) less than successful. (May)Kirkus Reviews
A fourth adventure for Cassandra Swann (King of Hearts, 1996, etc.)—zesty, zaftig, divorced—who's now starting up a business as a bridge instructor from her cottage in the Oxford countryside. Meanwhile, preoccupied with computer technology and taking wary note of a mysterious stalker in a white car, she finds time for a visit to a sick friend—poor (but rich) Naomi, who thinks her husband has been trying to kill her. Later, when Naomi's found an apparent suicide, strangers converge to convince Cassie that murder has occurred—among them are Naomi's muscular lover Philip and her needy, punk-haired daughter Lucy, returned from the secret exile of adoption (Naomi had always claimed to be childless). Cassie sleuths her way through multiple crimes and even finds the stalker, aided not at all by her moody policeman sometime-lover Paul and a little too much by her boisterous would-be lover Charlie, who turns out to be both sexually sensitive and rich. This latest in Moody's series shows some signs of having been written too speedily, including excessive personal-life padding, grammatical gaffes, and a lurid climax—all remediable by a more carefully worked final draft.Still, Cassie is lively, pleasant company. And the transatlantically accessible enjoyment Moody provides her readers puts a gloss on any number of gaucheries.
Book Details
Published
December 31, 1997
Publisher
Wheeler Publishing Inc
Pages
320
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9781568954943