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Critic's Corner
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WE'LL MEET AGAIN Reviewed by: Patricia Ann Jones The author sets out to braid these plot lines into a spine-tingling suspense tale and gives her readers a story with more thrills than a loose grenade without its pin. The insights Clark gives on HMOs will cause readers to investigate their medical caregivers with new eyes. Sure this is fiction, but fiction with credibility. As always, Clark takes her story ideas from the headlines of today's newspapers. "The State of Connecticut will prove that Molly Carpenter Lasch, with the intent to cause the death of her husband, Dr. Gary Lasch, did in fact cause his death; that as he sat at his desk, his back to her, she shattered his skull with a heavy bronze sculpture; that she then left him to bleed to death as she went upstairs to their bedroom and fell asleep . . . ." Philip Matthews, Molly's defense attorney, quickly counters the prosecutor's charges with his own version of the facts surrounding Dr. Lasch's death. He states that Molly returned home on Sunday evening last April 8, shortly after 8 P.M., from a week in her Cape Cod cottage; that she found her husband, Gary, sprawled over his desk; that she put her mouth to his to try to resuscitate him, heard his final gasps, then realizing he was dead, went upstairs and, totally traumatized, fell unconscious on her bed . . . ." Molly claims to have no memory of murdering her husband, but her defense is weak and she ultimately accepts a plea bargain of ten years in prison for manslaughter. Maybe she did kill her husband, everyone else thinks she did. Her own housekeeper's testimony against her seems irrefutable. After six years in prison Molly is released on parole. When Molly exits the prison, reporters are clustered out front to interview her. Among the gathered reporters is Fran Simmons, investigative reporter and anchor for a true-crime television series. Fran Simmons and Molly attended High School together and have not seen each other in years, but soon they renew their friendship and Molly convinces Fran to research and produce a program on Gary Lasch's death. This is the place where the story picks up momentum and races toward a breach wider than the Grand Canyon. The old adage comes to mind. "Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we start to deceive." Nevertheless, I took a leap of faith and jumped. Clark caught me on the other side with details that satisfied even a critic's black heart. Sorry I couldn't give you more of the storyline, but this one has complications on top of complications. Revealing any one of them could spoil the story for readers. I will tell you there are at least three murders, and I had seven suspects by page 190. The lights came on just before the end for me and I recognized the error of my deductions. Too late, I realized I'd fallen prey to Clark's red herrings. "We'll Meet Again" is Clark's 18th novel. Look for it on the bestseller's lists. ### |
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