Sidney Sheldon's Chasing Tomorrow

August 18, 2014
This outlandish romantic thriller from Bagshawe (Sidney Sheldon’s Angel of the Dark) picks up where the late Sheldon left off with 1985’s If Tomorrow Comes. Tracy Whitney and Jeff Stevens, a pair of attractive con artists, have spent their careers pulling off lucrative jewel heists around the globe. Now, they’re ready to tie the knot and settle down into wedded bliss and gender stereotypes: Jeff gets a job as a curator of antiquities at the British Museum, while Tracy pins her hopes on pregnancy. Enter a sultry third wheel, who shatters the couple’s happiness, and a deranged serial killer, whose murders are mysteriously tied to Tracy’s previous thefts. Descriptions of an international world of luxury contrast with the lives of lowbrow victims and villains who are stuck with bad accommodation and economy-class travel. Just when the absurdity of it all reaches its highest ebb, the book teeters to its preposterous climax. Agents: Luke and Mort Janklow, Janklow & Nesbit.

October 1, 2014
Bagshawe switches out the infamous jewel thief from the late Sheldon's If Tomorrow Comes (1985) with a brilliant replica. It's still the 1980s for Tracy Whitney. After landing in Brazil, she gets right down to business, pulling a scam on a ruthless businessman just before marrying her partner in crime, Jeff Stevens, in a private ceremony. The two are determined to leave their criminal pasts behind and start a family, but infertility problems-and a seductive co-worker-lead to a misunderstanding that sends Tracy packing. Tracy's predilection for bad luck is true to the source material, and she's just getting started. Jeff is long gone when Tracy finds out she's finally pregnant. Bagshawe handles all the drama with a light touch. When Nicholas tricks a little girl out of her lunch money, proving without a doubt that he's Jeff's son, Tracy couldn't be more proud that her kid is a budding con artist (so long as his victims are bullies). She builds a somewhat normal life with Blake Carter, a tragically nice guy who can't make Tracy forget about Jeff but who makes a convenient babysitter when her past catches up with her. A French detective thinks he can prove the connection between Tracy's most notorious crimes and a serial killer with a penchant for prostitutes and hotel room Bibles, forcing Tracy out of hiding. Soon, she and Jeff are working with law enforcement to catch the killer as they lift gaudy jewels and priceless artifacts from supposedly well-secured museums and homes, all with wonderfully cheesy prose: "The air was scented with tropical blooms and expensive perfume and the aroma of white truffles wafted in from the kitchen. But in the end, the one overpowering smell was money." It's astonishing how much this book evokes the past. After nearly 30 years, Tracy Whitney hasn't aged a day.

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October 1, 2014
Bagshawe continues Sheldon's tale of Tracy Whitney (introduced in If Tomorrow Comes, 2003), con woman extraordinaire. In the first novel, Tracy was framed by the Mob and sent to prison, where she honed her skills as a criminal mastermind, then went on a worldwide spree of heists upon her release. Now the life of crime has worn thin, so she has decided it's time to go straight, settle down with former partner-in-crime Jeff, and start a family. When that doesn't seem to be working out, Tracy gets itchy and longs for the thrills of her past. She disappears for more than a decade, with a French investigator always one step behind her. It appears that someone is once again setting Tracy up, committing crimes in all of the places she pulled off former capers. Who is out to get her, and why? Fans of the melodramatic style that Sheldon was known for (and that Bagshawe has ably adapted) will enjoy this high-energy thriller. Others will quietly look the other way.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)