The Sky Is Falling

September 4, 2000
Efficiently brisk and reliably suspenseful, Sheldon's (Tell Me Your Dreams, etc.) 17th novel demonstrates that this veteran master of commercial fiction has not lost his touch. Freshly returned to Washington, D.C., from a stint reporting in Sarajevo, TV newscaster Dana Evans (introduced in Sheldon's The Best Laid Plans) struggles to cope with her new adopted son, troubled 12-year-old Kemal, whose parents and sister were killed in the fighting. Back on the job, Dana interviews youngish millionaire Gary Winthrop, the scion of a Kennedyesque clan, only to learn the next day that the prospective Senate candidate and philanthropist has been murdered in his Washington townhouse. Unbelievably, Dana is the only person who finds it odd that five members of the Winthrop family have died violent deaths in the last year. Despite this weakness in the plot, Sheldon crafts a page-turner that takes Dana on a worldwide quest from France, Germany and Italy to Alaska and Moscow as she pursues her hunch that all the Winthrop deaths are related. Deceased family patriarch Taylor Winthrop, she discovers, was a manipulative, unscrupulous businessman, politico and womanizer with many enemies. And the senior Winthrop's connection to the real-life Siberian underground city of Krasnoyarsk-26 and its production of plutonium proves the source of the family's wealth and their ill fortune. A love triangle involving Dana, sports anchor Jeff Connors and his ex-wife, internationally known model Rachel Stevens, seems gratuitous, tossed in merely to add plot texture, but it does provide some viable moments of romance and schmaltz. When the villains behind the killings turn against Dana as she comes closer to the truth, the tension builds and holds right through to a seven-alarm finale. Agent, Mort Janklow. 750,000 first printing; Literary Guild and Doubleday main selections; Mystery Guild featured alternate; People Book Club alternate; 6-city author tour.

August 9, 2000
This latest novel from Sheldon (The Best Laid Plans) probably won't have much chance of being selected as an Oprah Book Club choice (hers are certainly more thoughtful, character-driven picks), but that won't stop it from being in demand by most library patrons. The book has pretty flimsy character development, a feeble plot line, and an ending that hardly surprises. Yet it works. From the first page, the reader is caught up in the snappy and suspenseful chapters, which become inescapably addictive. Dana Evans is a television reporter with an apparently unlimited travel expense account who finds it peculiar when all five members of a very wealthy and highly regarded family meet untimely and violent deaths. Her investigation soon confirms her suspicions, uncovering not one but three strong motives for murder. Eventually, her search leads her to top-secret Russian and U.S. agencies dealing with the production and sale of nuclear weapons. Needless to say, her probing for the truth doesn't go unnoticed, and soon she is running for her life. The last few chapters neatly resolve all the intrigue, including secondary story lines involving her adopted son; her fianc, Jeff; and a shaky relationship with her mother. A certain purchase for any public library fiction collection. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/00.]--Margaret Hanes, Sterling Heights P.L., MI

Copyright 2000 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2000
Popular author Sheldon ventures into the world of television journalism and post^-cold war espionage. After her courageous and high-profile coverage of the war in Sarajevo, Washington reporter Dana Evans is offered the plum job as host of her own investigative television show. She decides to investigate the deaths of the entire wealthy Winthrop family. A clan reminiscent of the Kennedys, the Winthrops appeared to be a family dedicated to public service; the patriarch, Taylor Winthrop, once served as an ambassador to Russia. Most journalists believe that their untimely deaths are merely tragic, but Dana finds the fact that the whole family died within a year suspicious and tries to find the cause. Her investigation leads to Aspen, major European capitals, and Russia, and the more Dana discovers, the more rapidly the image of a great altruistic American family dissolves. Taylor Winthrop had long been considered a modern-day saint, but eventually an international list of people who Taylor wronged is unearthed, and it seems he was up to no good with the Russians. Meanwhile Dana's personal life is in arrears. Kemel, her Yugoslavian adopted son, is having difficulty adjusting to school, and her fianceis off taking care of his beautiful ex-wife. In addition to the pseudo-Kennedy appeal, Sheldon's entertaining plot has the feel of a James Bond film but with a heroine instead of a hero. ((Reviewed August 2000))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2000, American Library Association.)