Mass Market Paperback: 480 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.06 x 6.88 x 4.20
Publisher: Ballantine Books; Reissue edition (February 28, 1998)
ISBN: 0345422317
An
un-put-downable adventure as Lassiter tries to find out why his sister
and her son were killed. Every lead he finds or stumbles upon is killed
or results as a dead end.
From the States to Rome to Italy to
Slovenia, Lassiter is hounded. In Italy he comes close to discovering
the book’s title via the priest who was the first to hear it whispered
from the lips of a dying doctor. The priest is murdered when Lassister
goes to visit him a second time. The first visit, the priest gives him
a letter from the dying man, it is in Italian, so the priest offers to
translate it for him — in a couple of hours. This doesn’t happen as
the priest is killed before the second meeting takes place and
Lassister is the prime suspect.
There are many woman who visited
a fertility clinic, run by Dr. Baresi, seventeen in all, including
Lassister’s sister. They all gave birth to boys. And they are all dead,
except one. The key to this entire novel, a once famous actress, who is
in hiding with her son, now aged 4.
Lassister tracks her down.
She is living on a remote island under a new name. And she speaks
Italian and is able to translate the letter.
During the novel
we are introduced to a host of characters, most of them believable and
quite real. It is this aspect that pulls the book through and makes it
a success on my eyes. It pulls the reader along through far too many
boring un-required pages of words that lead to nothing but adding page
count. (I have heard that these un-needed pages are gone from the
reissued edition). The last 40+ pages are shockingly good and totally
gripping. And the secret is revealed in a new and interesting way, via
the letter. It hints, doesn’t tell as the letter was written after Dr.
Baresi confesses to the priest.
The down points are: Long
un-needed passages that slow the book more than needed. 2. A lesson in
Bio Science that fills many pages. John Case really has done his
research, making the doctor’s fertility system almost possible.
Good
points: 1. Gripping, well written fiction that has enough facts to make
the “Secret” a real possibility. 2. The characters seem real and it is
pointed out many time though out the book that Lassister is very rich,
so his trips and outpouring of money is just accepted.
All in
all — A darn good book to sweep you away from the reality of life for
a few hours a day. I advise getting the reissue which is at 480 pages.
This seems like 50+ pages have been chopped. Hopefully they chopped the
boring shit.
