August 11, 2003
Motherly love fuels this latest romantic suspense novel by Fielding (Whispers and Lies; Grand Avenue; etc.), set in Toronto during the city's international film festival. When Julia—beautiful 21-year-old actress, imperious bitch-goddess—goes missing after a screen test with a famous director, her disappearance touches off a full-blown midlife crisis for her mother, Cindy. As Cindy searches for Julia, she envisions lurid crime scenarios, wrangles with her charming snake of an ex-husband and his trophy wife and comes to the uncomfortable realization that she and her selfish, irresponsible daughter have a few things in common. She copes by hashing out issues with her whiny sister, sharp-tongued mother and long-suffering younger daughter, by nurturing infants and pets and by having great sex with a handsome and preternaturally attentive new boyfriend. Crammed with stock situations and expected revelations, this breezy melodrama relies heavily on hit-or-miss repartee. Fielding fills space by having characters repeat one another's dialogue; a comic subplot about an incontinent dog is intrusive and tedious; and the drama takes place mostly in the heroine's head. Cindy herself is a likable mixture of brashness, panic and pratfalls, and readers will empathize as she tries to find her daughter and herself, but she is the lone bright spot in this lackluster effort. Fielding's many fans will miss her usual sharp plotting, but most will go along for the ride.
January 1, 2004
When her daughter Julia doesn't come home, worried mother Cindy Carver begins contacting Julia's friends, boyfriends, and the last person who seems to have seen the 21-year-old aspiring actress-the producer holding auditions for a movie called Lost. Impatient with the police's missing person investigation, Cindy pursues her own detective work, tracking down leads and ambush-interviewing hapless acquaintances. She is buoyed by the support of her mother, sister, girlfriends, and younger daughter and irritated by the nonchalance of her ex-husband and his trophy wife. Although Julia emerges as a selfish, self-centered adulteress, this mother's anguish and endless inner dialog are convincing, if increasingly tiresome. Alternately predictable, then manipulative, this melodrama is as tedious as an 11-hour made-for-TV movie. Although reader Lindsay Ellison nicely portrays the cast, this novel begs for abridgment. Any public library purchasing this "chick shtick" will do so only because of picketing Fielding fans. Not recommended.-Judith Robinson, Univ. at Buffalo, NY
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