March 7, 2011
MWA Grand Master Clark (The Shadow of Your Smile) explores identity theft in her middling 30th novel. Almost two years after someone snatched Alexandra "Zan" Moreland's then three-year-old son, Matthew, from his stroller while his sitter dozed, Zan, a New York City interior designer who remains devastated, has been unable to trace her son. To make matters worse, somebody is using her credit cards to purchase expensive items just as she's on the verge of landing a prestigious account for her fledgling business. Worst of all, evidence emerges that suggests Zan kidnapped her own son. Meanwhile, a priest is troubled by a woman whose confession reveals that a murder is being planned. Contrivances that prevent key information from reaching the heroine as well as characters without personality in the service of a plot with at least one major hole won't please those who prefer their suspense firmly grounded in reality and logic.
March 15, 2011
According to Clark's unique take on identity theft, the thief doesn't just want to steal your money but to ruin your credibility, snatch your son and take your life.
Interior designer Alexandra Moreland's son disappeared from his stroller two years ago while Tiffany Shields, the babysitter Zan had hurriedly arranged to watch him, dozed nearby. Matthew's trail has long gone cold until his fifth birthday, when a tabloid newspaper publishes a photograph of Zan removing him from his stroller. In a flash, all the friends who've stood by her for the past two years turn on her. Her ex, Ted Carpenter, the publicist she'd split up with before she ever knew she was pregnant, winds up their dinner at the Four Seasons by accusing her of kidnapping his son. Architect Kevin Wilson, a prospective client who's been about to choose her designs over those of her former boss Bartley Longe, begins to waver. Bartley, who never forgave Zan for leaving his shop to set up her own, spews venom into NYPD ears. So does Tiffany, frantic to take this opportunity to defend herself against all the innuendo she's endured. Even Zan's friends Alvirah and Willy Meehan, long familiar to the Clark faithful (The Lottery Winner, 1994, etc.), speculate whether she could have stolen Matthew during one of her mysterious blackouts. Only her loyal assistant, Josh Green, sticks by her side, and even he wonders who ordered the bolts of fabric that have begun to arrive at their office even though she swears she didn't order them. Meanwhile, Toby Grissom, who hasn't long to live, flies in from Texas to search for his daughter, Brittany La Monte, an aspiring actress and makeup expert who came to New York to make her fortune but disappeared shortly before Matthew.
Fans will bite their nails to the quick while they wait for all the characters who know bits and pieces of the story to pool their knowledge before the malefactor can strike again. Experts on identity theft will marvel that no matter what raw material goes into the Clark hopper, it all comes out looking much the same.
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November 15, 2010
It's bad enough that Alexandra Moreland's toddler disappeared in Central Park a few years back. Now Alexandra is being accused of identity theft and possibly murder. Looks as if someone is trying to drive her insane. Clark is a powerhouse, though a few fans thought her last book sounded same old, same old. Watch this one.
Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
April 1, 2011
Already reeling from the tragic loss of her parents in a car accident in Rome, Alexandra Zan Moreland is further devastated when her infant son, Matthew, is kidnapped from his stroller in Central Park. Now, two years later, her marriage ended but her career as an interior designer poised to take off, Zan once again finds herself a victim. Exorbitant credit-card charges for clothes and airline tickets come on top of mysteriously wiped-out bank accounts and unauthorized purchases for materials for a job she hasnt been awarded yet. Then on what would have been Matthews fifth birthday, photos surface that purportedly show Zan as the one who snatched Matthew on that fateful day. As the paparazzi pursue her and police mount an aggressive investigation, even Zans closest friends and colleagues doubt her innocence. Leading the attacks are both her smarmy ex-husband and conniving former boss, men with complicated reasons of their own for wanting Zans life destroyed. Teeming with tantalizing twists, Clarks crackling tale of identity theft, revenge, and murder is a tempting and thought-provoking thriller.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)