Luanne Rice

I have been a fan of Luanne Rice for two decades and her latest offering did not let me down: it was a page turner. I loved the way the characters took shape as the story unfolded, not in neat chronological fashion, but in bits and pieces, giving them so much dimension. The narrative filaments of this complex plot wove in and out—largely through the device of moving forward and back in time from chapter to chapter—pulling in tighter until the mystery wrapped up tightly. And, as usual, show more Ms. Rice is masterful at capturing a sense of place—the old New England fishing villages on the Long Island Sound. In addition to the riveting story, the treatment of domestic abuse was well-laid out. Two lines will stay with me:

“Abusers are weak. They trap women who have gigantic hearts, who want to help these poor, sad wounded birds.” show less

Warning! - Here be spoilers!

When Clare's sister, Anne, marries a mysterious man from Denmark, everything changes. The sister whom she was so close to suddenly cuts her family out of her life. Only gradually does Clare come to realize that her sister is being verbally and physically abused. Many years later, when Anne tries to escape her abuser with her children, her husband attacks her. Fighting to save her sister's life, Clare beats the man with a burning log from the fire. This fateful show more event ends with Clare in prison for assault and Anne still in the clutches of her fiendish husband.

Decades pass and Anne's daughter, Grit, finally wants to meet her aunt. She comes to stay with Clare in New York and over several weeks, the truth comes out. Can anything mend this broken family?

This book isn't poorly written, but the characters are so far-fetched and unsympathetic that I couldn't bring myself to care. Ms. Rice probably thinks she's asking an important question: At what point should one lose sympathy for a battered spouse? I think that's a thorny and complex issue, but Ms. Rice doesn't seem to agree. We the readers, as well as the characters in the book, are asked to extend infinite sympathy. I'm sorry, I can't. While I don't understand why a woman living in this century would choose to stay with a man who constantly beats and insults her, I do understand that there are often deep psychological scars that force her to remain. However, when she sits idly by and lets her sister go to jail for saving her life, I begin to lose patience. When she allows her children to be abused by her husband, I become disgusted. When one of her children kills himself rather than remain in this abusive situation, and she returns meekly to her place, I give her up as forever lost. When she joins her husband in abusing her remaining child, she has become sub-human herself. She should be in jail. She should never see her daughter again. Period.

And then, inexplicably, she "snaps out of it" and decides to leave her husband because her daughter is in the hospital for a flesh wound. I'm sorry... you didn't think you should leave your husband when YOUR SON KILLED HIMSELF BEFORE YOUR EYES but your daughter gets a scratch and suddenly you've come to your senses? It wasn't believable. It was stupid.

Oh and when her husband (surprise, surprise) won't let her leave, she kills him. And acts like it's no big deal. And so does everyone else in her life. Because murdering someone is fine as long as they're bad. Now she's a murder, but the reader is expected to remain sympathetic to her? Sorry, she lost all my sympathy when she beat her daughter with a red hot poker. I don't care if she said "sorry" later. She's a sociopath. show less

I give Luanne Rice credit for leaving her usual Connecticut seashore setting and writing about the illegal Mexican immigrant experience in southern California. She makes a point of reminding us how the Irish immigrants of the 19th century faced similar prejudice and protest, yet became an integral part of our society. It's impossible not to feel for hero Roberto, who is only looking for a better life for himself and his daughter.

However, as usual with most of Rice's recent books, the love show more story is so insipid and the main characters are so bland that I couldn't feel at all connected to them, even though both hero and heroine have suffered tremendous losses. They seem to inhabit some alternative universe where falling in love is immediate, absolute, and comes without any internal conflicts or personality differences. The addition of several secondary characters, including a former Border Patrol agent and an aging movie star, don't add much to the story. The bittersweet ending, much like the rest of the book, left me cold.

Once upon a time, Luanne Rice wrote interesting novels with nuanced characters, but for the past 10 years her books have had all of the depth of a Hallmark greeting card. I miss the old Luanne Rice but I guess I need to realize that she is not coming back. show less

When Claire Beaudry Chase goes missing, Detective Conor Reid and his brother, Tom, are on the case. It’s evident from the beginning that Claire’s husband, Griffin Chase, should be the prime suspect, but since he’s running for Governor in Connecticut, his rich, privileged friends protect him. The story starts plausible but gets out of hand. The rich guys start killing everyone and think they can get away with it. It takes a group of abused wives to bring them down. It's entertaining but show more not very believable. show less