Friends for Life

April 1, 1996
In this adroitly plotted first novel, set in contemporary London, British literary agent Smith works a keenly observed story of five women into a murder thriller. Beth, a divorced caterer, has been having an affair with Oliver, a married banker. Vivienne, a former "Debutante of the Year," happens to be married to Oliver and doesn't know of the affair. Georgy, an American photographer on assignment in London, is infatuated with Beth's ex-husband. Without any obvious links (at first) to the first three are Sally, the sexy, freewheeling good-time girl from Australia, and Catherine, a veterinarian's receptionist whose famous mother cruelly squashed her one chance at love. Smith nimbly charts the ways in which the disparate lives of these women intersect until they all meet, by chance, in a gynecological ward, where they become friends. She generates suspense with a violent prologue in which an unnamed woman is attacked in her kitchen and maintains the tension with short, italicized chapters detailing further murders (with the players remaining anonymous). By the time the main plot acquires the sinister tone of the prologue and interchapters, every character has come so vividly to life that the reader is hooked, ready to be reeled in as Smith subtly orchestrates the series of events that brings the canny and experienced killer to the fore in a protracted and graphic conclusion. Major ad/promo.

February 1, 1996
When five very different women meet as patients in a London hospital, they begin to develop friendships among themselves. These tentative bonds are threatened, however, as they discover that their lives are already intertwined through the men they know. Suddenly one of the women dies and another is viciously attacked, and it becomes clear to the reader that they are being stalked by a killer. Although the book starts a bit slowly as the women are introduced, the suspense begins to build as the crimes are committed. First-time author Smith plants several clues, so it is not too difficult to figure out the identity of the psychopathic murderer. The otherwise astute women seem surprisingly unaware of the danger and must be saved by the men who piece together the mystery and ride to the rescue. In spite of this disappointing turn, Smith's debut remains promising.--Barbara E. Kemp, University at Albany Libs., N.Y.

March 15, 1996
Five women will eventually come to form strong, oddly curious bonds of friendship, but first they find themselves sharing a ward as patients in one of central London's National Health hospitals. These lives are joined together by a complex web of connections that Smith's deliciously suspenseful first novel adeptly allows to unfold at a nearly perfect pace. The clever narrative features a decidedly nuanced feminist theme, with a bevy of skillfully rendered female characters as different as they can be from one another, yet drawn together by the Fates--with some help from a psychopathic serial killer. The mesmerizing tale resolves around the charming central figure of Beth and other, less likable individuals (who eventually come into their own), building unfalteringly to its startling conclusion. ((Reviewed March 15, 1996))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1996, American Library Association.)