Fiction, Fiction Subjects

The High Flyer

Name: The High Flyer
Author: Susan Howatch
ISBN: 9780345439482

by Susan Howatch

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Overview

Convincing herself that Sophie is mad, Carter moves ahead with her life. But something is amiss–and as Sophie’s stories are corroborated by other unwelcome disclosures from Kim’s past, Carter is thrown into a terrifying web of suspicion and betrayal, pushing her sanity to the edge. In desperation, Carter seeks help from Nicholas Darrow, the charismatic priest of St. Benet’s Healing Center. Though a religious skeptic, Carter hopes to stem the tide of darkness that threatens to envelop her life–and begins a compelling journey into the very nature of good and evil, wisdom and redemption. . . .

Synopsis

Successful London lawyer Carter Graham has power, sex appeal, and a well-ordered life. Everything has gone according to plan, including her recent marriage to Kim Betz, an investment banker with the right combination of looks and position. On the surface it appears to be a match made in heaven. The only problem is Kim’s ex-wife. Sophie begins to follow Carter like a shadow, making outrageous claims about Kim’s involvement in the occult.

Convincing herself that Sophie is mad, Carter moves ahead with her life. But something is amiss–and as Sophie’s stories are corroborated by other unwelcome disclosures from Kim’s past, Carter is thrown into a terrifying web of suspicion and betrayal, pushing her sanity to the edge. In desperation, Carter seeks help from Nicholas Darrow, the charismatic priest of St. Benet’s Healing Center. Though a religious skeptic, Carter hopes to stem the tide of darkness that threatens to envelop her life–and begins a compelling journey into the very nature of good and evil, wisdom and redemption. . . .

Barnes & Noble Guide to New Fiction

Considered an "average" Howatch, in this new work, P. D. James meets Jan Karon in this novel that weaves together the ecclesiastic and the earthly in a provocative story. Characterization seems to be a strong point: "alive and brilliant." But considered "a slow starter," plot-wise.

About the Author, Susan Howatch

Susan Howatch was born in 1940. She obtained a law degree from London University and then immigrated to the United States, where she lived for eleven years. During that time she wrote eight novels, including her international bestsellers Penmarric and The Wheel of Fortune. In 1980 she returned to England, where she began to study Church history. The result was the six novels that make up the Starbridge series. In 1993 she made headlines by funding a lectureship in theology and natural science at Cambridge University.

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Editorials

Barnes & Noble Guide to New Fiction

Library Journal

Englishwoman Carter Graham is so focused on her rising legal career that she chooses her husband by how he will best fit with the personal life plan she has mapped out to maximize her professional fame. Her new husband, Kim, also an attorney, seems like the perfect mate, but before the honeymoon is over, Carter discovers secrets and half-truths about his family and first marriage which reveal that she really doesn't know him at all. The disclosure of his family's Nazi past and his emotional entanglement with Mrs. Mayfield, a pseudo-religious psychic healer, only deepen her anxiety. Howatch (The Wonder Worker) does a great job of quickly hooking the reader into her unfolding story. Everything seems so perfectly normal, yet the tension builds as Carter narrates each suspicious conversation and event. A suspense novel mixed with Gothic overtones and spiritual dimensions, this story works on almost every level. Though it might have benefited from tighter editing, it is still a worthwhile and highly entertaining read. A definite purchase for any public library. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/1/00.]--Margaret Hanes Sterling Heights P.L., MI Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

Rosenfeld

Susan Howatch's The High Flyer is the rare beach read designed to be enjoyed by both sexes.
—Talk Magazine

Kirkus Reviews

Good and evil clash in gripping, intellectually satisfying ways as Howatch (The Wonder Worker, 1997, etc.) charts the spiritual crises provoked by disturbing revelations and encounters with a sinister `psychic healer` in the City of London, where money is God and work is religion Revisiting the same terrain she explored in The Wonder Worker, and featuring familiar characters like Nicholas Darrow, Lewis Hall, and Alice Fletcher, Howatch introduces tough-talking Carter Graham, a high-powered City lawyer who thinks she has her whole life planned out—a belief that invites disaster once she marries Kim Betz, another apparently successful high flyer. Carter, whose father's debts led to her family's eviction and her parents' divorce, had vowed her life would be different. But as Kim's first wife, Sophie, tries futilely to contact her, Carter learns that Kim has lied and his past was even more wounding than hers. His father was a Nazi, not a Jewish refugee as he told her, and when she meets Kim's malevolent healer, Mrs. Mayfield, who dabbles in blackmail and the occult, she finds out he has been involved in a murder, plus kinky sex rituals. Convinced now that Sophie is trying to help, Carter heads to Sophie's home, only to discover her dead. Then Carter's apartment is vandalized and she thinks she sees Sophie's ghost. Frightened of committing suicide, as Mrs. Mayfield suggested she might, Carter flees to the church whose rector is the brother of her handsome personal assistant. Taken to the Healing Center of St. Benet, a skeptical Carter begins a painful search for truth and meaning. Yet before she reaches that moment of saving grace and insight, she must first face bothherpast and Kim's. Vivid and absorbing dispatches from one of the best correspondents on the war between darkness and light. Another winner. Literary Guild alternate selection