Pen Pals

USA Today

Pals is the perfect Valentine's Day present for a woman suffering the done-wrong blues.

Publishers Weekly

An old hand at the hell-hath-no-fury revenge novel, Goldsmith sets her latest humorous caper in an unlikely location behind bars. When "Wall Street showboater" Jennifer Spencer agreed to "take the heat" for her boss's insider trading, she thought at worst she'd be sent to some country club prison for white collar ladies. At the very least, Tom Branson, "the sharpest (and most handsome) young counsel on the Street" (as well as her "beloved fiance") would arrange for special treatment and an expedited appeal that would have her back in her posh office within days. But once the gate is locked at Jennings Correctional Facility, Jennifer realizes that her boss, and somehow even Tom, have abandoned her to serve the full three to five years in a "battleship pink" hellhole. In earlier novels, Goldsmith (The First Wives Club, etc.) embraced her heroines' consumerism with wicked glee; here, she strains to teach Jennifer "values, co-operation, and probably some humility" at the hands of an implausibly benevolent warden and some noble, wholesome inmates. Assigned to the "crew" of Movita Watson, the sassy "queen bee" of Jennings, Jennifer is persuaded to use her Wall Street smarts to help fight the privatization of Jennings and get back at the "yellow rat bastards" who put her there. The revenge scheme is amusingly intricate, but it doesn't jibe with the desperate, tragic air of the prison setting or the frequent didactic speeches about rehabilitation. Even Goldsmith's famous ear for dishy girl talk is lacking here, as the inmates (particularly Movita) speak a highfalutin jailhouse jive that wavers dangerously in tone. After Diana Brooks aided the prosecution at the Sotheby's trial, it's no longer funny when a woman is urged to take the rap for her boss. And does anybody still think Wall Street can come to the rescue? (Feb.) Forecast: Goldsmith's fans may be briefly amused by the idea of one of her pampered protagonists in prison but will they ante up to read about ladies in jumpsuits? Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Mistress of revenge novels, Goldsmith (The First Wives Club) sets her sights on Wall Street and a sacrificial victim to an insider trading scandal named Jennifer Spencer, who ends up at Jennings Correctional Facility. The story plays with traditional stock characters from many women's prison novels: the tough crew leader Movita, streetwise thief Cher, innocent and na ve Suki, wisely optimistic chatterbox Theresa, and harried warden Gwen Harding. The plot moves slowly and isn't as polished as Goldsmith's earlier works, but the outcomes are properly satisfying. Narrated by Joyce Bean, this is an entertaining but predictable option for larger collections.-Joyce Kessel, Villa Maria Coll., Buffalo, NY Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A Wall Street whiz takes an insider-trading rap for her crooked boss and winds up in prison. Jennifer Spencer is bright, beautiful-and behind bars. Her attorney fiance, Thomas Branston IV, and Donald Michaels, the sharklike CEO of her financial firm, persuaded her to take the rap for Donald's dirty deals and SEC violations, assuring her of a slap-on-the-wrist reprimand-and now she's in the Jennings Correctional Institute for Women for three to five. It's no country club, even though warden Gwen Harding is a sympathetic sort. Jennifer trades her Armani outfit for an orange jumpsuit, endures a body cavity search, and meets her fellow inmates: Movita Watson, a proud black woman serving a life sentence for slaying her abusive husband; thieving Cher McInnery, a hillbilly goddess from Arkansas; Suki, a fragile young woman convicted as accessory in a robbery, now pregnant by a guard who raped her; and Margaret Rafferty, a prep school headmistress found guilty of murdering her cheating husband. Jennifer soon understands that the name of the game is humiliation, not rehabilitation; and that no one is going to rescue her any time soon. But Lenny Benson, her firm's mild-mannered accountant, has been digging into the records and uncovering all kinds of wrongdoing-though not evidence enough to spring Jennifer. A crisis looms when the prison is faced with privatization by JRU, a cash-poor business planning to use inmates as telemarketers. Aided by Margaret's wheeler-dealer sons, Jennifer scotches the plan by on-line manipulation of JRU stock and arranging for a buyout of the undercapitalized company. With time off for good behavior, she's soon a free woman, meting out punishment to Donald and Tom andwangling pardons for some of the other Pen Pals. Social work as satire: The harsh realities of prison life are noted briefly on the way to a formulaic (and rather improbable) happy ending. Goldsmith (Bad Boy, 2001, etc.) has done better.