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- Romance - |
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Genuine Lies |
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 Genuine Lies byNora Roberts Bantam Books 528 pages, 1999 ISBN 0553290789 Reviewed by John A. Broussard, PhD Adventure, suspense, mystery and romance. It's all there in Genuine Lies and it's done with remarkable deftness. Using the thinly disguised figure of a real Hollywood legend - including her green eyes - Roberts devises an intriguing plot. Eve Benedict, in her sixties, still beautiful (with help from her plastic surgeon), noted for her frequent marriages and even more frequent lovers, decides her memoirs need to be recorded for posterity. She convinces a successful biographer, Julia Summers, to undertake the task. Sheer terror sweeps through the Hollywood community when the word gets out that the memoirs are in progress. Cadavers will rise, skeletons will rattle out of closets, and curtains will come up on perversions, treachery, dope addiction, assorted crimes, and even murder. Someone, however, is determined that the Life of Eve will never reach the publisher. Caught in between, Julia is equally determined to write the biography, despite the mounting threats. As a single mother, there is nothing more precious than her ten-year old son. Stubborn and independent, she unwillingly accepts the help and eventually the protection of Paul Winthrop, a stepson from one of Eve's numerous marriages. The protection grows into something more - much more. In the tradition of the best of cozy mysteries, all the vindictive, terrified people who know they will be featured in the biography are brought together at one of Eve's famous parties. The pot boils over as the inevitable result. Roberts does an amazing job of maintaining the suspense while violating many of the old and rigid rules of writing. She begins her story in the middle and alerts the reader to much of what is to follow, throws in flashbacks at the most improbable moments, switches points of view with marvelous aplomb. And it all works. Apparent blemishes in Genuine Lies are the publisher’s fault, not the author’s. Roberts and her readers deserve better treatment. Typos abound, and the spell-checked wrong word shows up too often. It's not only annoying to have an "unadorned" hand come out as an "unadored" one in a steamy and carefully underplayed sex scene, but such errors distract from the pleasure of reading a beautifully crafted, not to be missed novel. |
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