Conscience Point

August 18, 2008
New York concert pianist Madeleine Shaye has it all: a thriving career as a television correspondent, a beautiful adopted daughter in college and a longtime love, wealthy Nick Ashcroft. Violet Ashcroft, Nick's sister, first brought Maddy to their crumbling Hamptons mansion during their 1960s college days, when the girls were trying to avoid marriage and follow their artistic passions to Paris. More than three decades later, Violet has long since disappeared in a void of scandal, but Maddy hopes to resuscitate their dream of establishing an artists' colony. Unfortunately, Nick has been acting distant and dropping hints about wanting a child, even though Maddy is pushing middle age. Before long, daughter Laila announces she's leaving Brown to work in a Guatemalan village, a new producer shoves Maddy aside in favor of a younger competitor, and Nick leaves her for another woman. Maddy soon discovers that these upheavals camouflage a crueler betrayal, one that launches her into a winding journey of revenge and renewal. Abeel's middling fifth novel recasts familiar characters and situations on a new stage, but with the exception of vibrant (but underused) Violet offers little that's fresh.

September 1, 2008
Abeel's fifth novel (after "Women Like Us") is an engaging read with plot twists and complex characters. Madeleine Shaye, a pianist and TV arts correspondent, seems to have it all: a solid relationship, a rewarding career or two, a daughter in college. Then, things start to unravel as she begins to suspect that both her lover, Nick, and her employers are casting about for a younger model. With good humor and just a few fantasies of murder and mayhem, she goes about finding a way to remain relevant. Some chapters have the feel of a mystery as Maddy puts two and two together about Nick's past and present missteps and the dark secret that has poisoned his family. Echoing Evelyn Waugh's "Brideshead Revisited", Maddy's involvement with Nick's privileged, old-money family began long ago in college, when his sister, Violet, invited her to visit Conscience Point, the now crumbling setting for much of the novel. Yet this is ultimately a story about retaking the road not taken and reclaiming one's purpose in life. Recommended for public and academic libraries collecting literary fiction.Gwen Vredevoogd, Marymount Univ. Lib., Arlington, VA

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2008
MadeleineMaddy Shaye is content with her station in life: her adopted daughter excels academically, just like she did; her husband, Nick, a publisher, who came along later in Maddys life, comes from old money, whichmakes traveling, philanthropy, and leisure possible; and her second career as an arts broadcast reporter brings her considerable acclaim. Its the late 1990s, though, and soon Maddy feels the breakneck speed of the world leaving her behind. Young hotshots have established new regimes at both her and her husbands jobs, making her regret that she didn't pursue her dream to be a concert pianist and that she didnt devote more effort to her marriage. Not to mention that her daughter decides she wants to save the world rather than finish college. As her life unravels, the past rears its head, turning up buried secrets, butMaddy finds strength in her music. Abeel manages both to poke entertaining fun at the silly habits of the superrich and to tell the engrossing, sympatheticstory of a superrich woman who turns her back on it all.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)