Product Description

The Winthrops are America's royal family, and its Prince Charming is the sexy, charismatic Gary Winthrop. Now the man on his way to becoming the Senate's brightest new star is found murdered in his home-the latest in a series of incidents that have killed five members of the family in a single year. One of the last people to see Gary Winthrop alive is Washington anchorwoman Dana Evans. She makes it her mission to investigate these seemingly random tragedies, little realizing that her search will sweep her across several continents, place her and her young son in grave danger, and lead her to a truth that will astound the world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #81742 in Books
• Published on: 2001-07-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 416 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780446610179
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
Dana Evans, who made her first appearance in Sidney Sheldon's The Best Laid Plans, is a spunky, good-looking, young Washington TV journalist who's recently returned to the nation's capital from the Balkans, where she adopted a handicapped war orphan who's having trouble adjusting to life in America. But that doesn't keep Dana from following a story all over the world, from Washington to Aspen, Nice, Juneau, Dusseldorf, Rome, Brussels, Moscow, and Siberia. Each of these brief visits is like a postcard--a local landmark or two, an interesting local restaurant (at least in the European venues), and another piece of the puzzle, which has to do with why every member of a venerable, old Washington dynasty has died a violent death in the last year. It seems strange that in a media-savvy city like Washington, no one but Dana has noticed there's a pattern in the rapid extinction of the Winthrops or even whispered the words family vendetta. But that's why pretty, young girl TV reporters were invented, at least by Sheldon.

As Dana sets out to investigate the distinguished career of the Winthrop family patriarch, her lover Jeff, a sports anchor at her station, is called away to administer aid and succor to his former wife, a beautiful model who's realized, too little and too late, that she never should have dumped him. And Kemal, the 12-year-old orphan, is being drugged by his baby sitter, who's in cahoots with at least one set of bad guys. Dana hasn't noticed how tractable the temperamental boy has become recently because she's been dressing up like a two-bit Russian tramp to infiltrate a secret weapons base in Siberia... Do you hear the words movie locations? But all's well that ends well, as it usually does for Sheldon's heroines, and in the meantime you've learned where the five-star hotels are and what to order in a famous restaurant in Rome. A slick, commercial, slightly thin tale told by a craftsman of the genre. --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly
Efficiently brisk and reliably suspenseful, Sheldon's (Tell Me Your Dreams, etc.) 17th novel demonstrates that this veteran master of commercial fiction has not lost his touch. Freshly returned to Washington, D.C., from a stint reporting in Sarajevo, TV newscaster Dana Evans (introduced in Sheldon's The Best Laid Plans) struggles to cope with her new adopted son, troubled 12-year-old Kemal, whose parents and sister were killed in the fighting. Back on the job, Dana interviews youngish millionaire Gary Winthrop, the scion of a Kennedyesque clan, only to learn the next day that the prospective Senate candidate and philanthropist has been murdered in his Washington townhouse. Unbelievably, Dana is the only person who finds it odd that five members of the Winthrop family have died violent deaths in the last year. Despite this weakness in the plot, Sheldon crafts a page-turner that takes Dana on a worldwide quest from France, Germany and Italy to Alaska and Moscow as she pursues her hunch that all the Winthrop deaths are related. Deceased family patriarch Taylor Winthrop, she discovers, was a manipulative, unscrupulous businessman, politico and womanizer with many enemies. And the senior Winthrop's connection to the real-life Siberian underground city of Krasnoyarsk-26 and its production of plutonium proves the source of the family's wealth and their ill fortune. A love triangle involving Dana, sports anchor Jeff Connors and his ex-wife, internationally known model Rachel Stevens, seems gratuitous, tossed in merely to add plot texture, but it does provide some viable moments of romance and schmaltz. When the villains behind the killings turn against Dana as she comes closer to the truth, the tension builds and holds right through to a seven-alarm finale. Agent, Mort Janklow. 750,000 first printing; Literary Guild and Doubleday main selections; Mystery Guild featured alternate; People Book Club alternate; 6-city author tour. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
This latest novel from Sheldon (The Best Laid Plans) probably won't have much chance of being selected as an Oprah Book Club choice (hers are certainly more thoughtful, character-driven picks), but that won't stop it from being in demand by most library patrons. The book has pretty flimsy character development, a feeble plot line, and an ending that hardly surprises. Yet it works. From the first page, the reader is caught up in the snappy and suspenseful chapters, which become inescapably addictive. Dana Evans is a television reporter with an apparently unlimited travel expense account who finds it peculiar when all five members of a very wealthy and highly regarded family meet untimely and violent deaths. Her investigation soon confirms her suspicions, uncovering not one but three strong motives for murder. Eventually, her search leads her to top-secret Russian and U.S. agencies dealing with the production and sale of nuclear weapons. Needless to say, her probing for the truth doesn't go unnoticed, and soon she is running for her life. The last few chapters neatly resolve all the intrigue, including secondary story lines involving her adopted son; her fianc , Jeff; and a shaky relationship with her mother. A certain purchase for any public library fiction collection.
-DMargaret Hanes, Sterling Heights P.L., MI
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

The Sky Is Falling Review
If some of you haven't noticed, this book's characters comes from his other book "The Best Laid Plans." You don't need to read that book to know who the characters are, but it helps because it will give you more background information. Anyhow, I thought the plot was interesting, and no doubt a page-turner (especially since I finished it the same day I bought it) however I'm sorry to say that this book was not all that great compared to his other books. In my opinion, it seems like he's losing his touch. I can't exactly figure out what it is, but the book seems to be missing something.. and I guess I didn't get the "fullfilment" at the end that I usually get when reading his books. Anyhow, Sidney Sheldon is one of my favorite authors, so if this is the first book you've read from him, check out his other books, they're awesome! =)

SPELLBINDING...TOUGH TO PUT DOWN
World famous for their goverment service, the Winthrop's, are America's royal family, but as the fifth death ends the family name, Washington anchorwoman, Dana Evans, believes there is something strange surrounding the deaths.

As Dana begins her investigation she uncovers evidence that is shocking, and on her quest to uncover the truth, she will enter into a game of cat and mouse that will take her around the world, bringing her closer to a diabolical killer.

Dana must outwit her pursuers, to expose the truth, and save the life of her son.

"The Sky Is Falling" is vintage Sheldon; fast-paced, exciting, well-written, and always entertaining.

Sidney Sheldon is praised as being the "master of the storytelling game", and deservedly so...he grabs the reader immediately, and pulls them along for a ride they will hate to see end.

If you are looking for a novel you can't put down...grab this one!

A MUST read!

Nick Gonnella

Those Were The Days.......
It use to be that I would read Sheldon's novels in one day.... fast paced, filled with intrique, twists and turns, characters that made you either love them or hate them or question them.... and when I was finished reading I was not only fulfilled but anxious for Sheldon's next novel.

Those were the days....

Now, I still can read his novels in one day, but.... this book (as many of his books in the past 7 years) are just not fulfilling. The character development is lacking, the story has no intrique and when I finished, I wondered one more time...why do I still buy his books. (The answer is because I remember those that I really loved, like Master of the Game, Rage of Angels, Windmills of the Gods, and I keep hoping he'll have another one that reaches the same heights of enjoyment.)

After this book, I'll read more Amazon reviews before I rush out to purchase the book on its first day of sale. The book is just not worth it... if you are a fan of Sheldon...wait for the paperpack.

If you have never read him before....buy any of the books I mentioned and you will truly enjoy his writing ability.