All Fall Down

February 28, 2000
Melanie, Mia and Ashley are triplets dealing with the effects of an abusive childhood in Spindler's (Cause for Alarm) dark psychological thriller. Grown up and battling dysfunction, Mia's now married to a physically abusive doctor; Ashley has become a bitter man-hater; and Melanie is a divorced cop fighting for custody of her son. When a serial killer nicknamed the "Dark Angel" starts bumping off abusers who have gone unpunished by the legal system, Melanie begins her own investigation into the mysterious deaths. Most people, including world-famous FBI profiler Connor Parks, think the case is best left unsolved, but Mel is out to win the respect and cooperation of her peers, even if her findings take her too close to home for comfort. Although suspenseful, this hefty novel is diminished by sluggish plotting and uneven writing.

October 31, 2011
Fans of melodrama will cleave to Hart’s latest, which is inspired by the Jonestown massacre and the Peoples Temple cult. Sunshine (“Sunny”), 19, and her three children, who have spent their lives at the Family of Superior Bliss religious compound, are forced by Sunny’s mother to leave. The four of them show up on the doorstep of Sunny’s birth father Christopher, and soon learn that those remaining at the compound have died in a mass suicide. The world of the “Family” had questionable practices: male leaders had their pick of women as young as 15 to bear their children and vie for being “the true wife”; children and adults were often humiliated or brutally punished. Christopher, meanwhile, had no idea he had a daughter with his first wife, let alone three grandchildren. His current wife, Liesel, desperate to have children of her own, suddenly finds herself saddled ostensibly with four of them and now must confront the realities of parenthood. An interesting set-up, but unfortunately, the numerous iterations of Liesel’s discontent prove predictable and whiny. Though Hart (Precious and Fragile Things) works with an unusual story line, the novel lacks the depth that could have yielded a thought-provoking read.