Sleeping Beauty

Starred review from June 1, 1998
Following his spectacular African expedition, Sir James Stoker has become the darling of high society. At last, this coachman's son achieves fame, fortune and the Order of the Bath from Queen Victoria. And he is about to throw it all away with his obsession for an infamous Parisian courtesan. At 37, Coco Wild is eight years his senior and jaded in matters of love. She is flattered by James's youthful charm and gallantry, and though tempted, she rejects him. After repeated chance encounters, James breaks through her defenses to become her lover. Now, their association threatens his reputation, his chances for a formal title, his friendship with his mentor (the father of Coco's child!) and even his life. From Victorian England to Italy and Monaco, this fair hero plots his seduction of a mysterious beauty amid threats of greed, betrayal, treachery and political machinations. Ivory (Beast) enchants her readers with intense sexual tension, understated but powerful symbolism, great plotting and sympathetic characters who buck tired types.

March 8, 2004
The criminal at the heart of bestseller Margolin's unsatisfying 10th thriller is particularly heinous. Late one night in Portland, Ore., he assaults teenager Ashley Spencer, rapes and kills Ashley's friend Tanya, a sleepover guest, and stabs Ashley's father to death. Ashley miraculously escapes, but her brush with terror is far from over. A few months later, just as she and her mother, Terri (out of town on the night of the attack), are beginning to re-engage with the world, the killer strikes again, murdering Terri and leaving another woman, Casey Van Meter, in a coma on the grounds of Ashley's new school, the exclusive Oregon Academy. Ashley doesn't witness the crime, but she sees Joshua Maxfield, the school's writer-in-residence, at the scene, clutching a bloody knife. Wondering why her quiet, loving family has been targeted by this madman, she goes into hiding in Europe, returning to Portland years later to bear witness when Maxfield is finally apprehended and tried. But is he guilty? And what was the motive for this crime spree? The search for answers generates a modicum of suspense, but the book never really commands much interest, thanks to clumsy plotting and even clumsier prose. Much of the story is revealed in flashbacks, framed by scenes from a reading in a Seattle bookstore given by Casey's twin brother, Miles Van Meter, who has written a bestselling true-crime book about the case and his comatose sister (and yes, it's as contrived as it sounds). Margolin (The Ties That Bind
, etc.) has imagined a particularly lurid and sensational crime, but he fails to realize virtually any of its inherent dramatic potential. (Apr. 2)

Forecast:
The publisher is making a big promotional push, including a 14-city author tour, that should ensure placement on bestseller lists.

May 15, 1998
Newly returned from an extraordinary African expedition, geologist Sir James Stoker, now wealthy, knighted, and society's man of the moment, never dreams that his future is waiting for him in a London dentist's office. But lovely, mysterious, and totally scandalous Coco Wild attracts him as no one before and proves to be a challenge in more ways than one. Ivory offers a cast of well-drawn, sympathetic characters, a setting that vividly portrays the inherent Victorian conflict between appearance and reality, and a plot liberally laced with politics, jealousy, and greed. The result is a beautifully romantic fairy tale, exquisitely told and infinitely satisfying. Ivory (Beast, LJ 5/15/97) also writes as Judy Cuevas and lives in Miami, FL.