Rage of Angels

Sidney Sheldon

 

A worldwide bestseller first published in 1980, this novel tells the story of Jennifer Parker, a successful lawyer who is loved by two men, one a politician, the other, a mafia don. 

 Ah, Sidney, Sidney... I always come back to you when I need a bit of a palate cleanser between loftier fare. You never fail to entertain me. This time, though, you didn't quite electrify me. I don't think this is one of your best works. It's got some absolutely terrific elements (two thumbs up for the kid's near crucifixion; ditto for his water skiing horror), but somehow it just doesn't quite scale the giddy heights of excess that 'The Other Side of Midnight' does so very, very well. But this is not to say I wasn't gripped and engaged. I read this in a couple of days, which is doing very well for me. But some of the expectations I had in the excellent first half didn't quite deliver with pay-offs in the corruption-drenched second half. I REALLY hoped some of the clients Jennifer miraculously got off in her climb to the top would come back and save HER in the second half. They didn't. Not even poor Stumpy, the limbless beauty queen. Also, Ken...? Was he a pillow biting old Nancy or not? Admittedly my beat up 80s copy was missing ten pages around a third of the way in, but I doubt if those bits were crucial to the Ken subplot. What WAS Ken...? Anyway, even when faintly mediocre, Sidney is never boring. He continues to teach ME lessons about storytelling, and there are plenty of other writers with books on the shelves that I rather wish he'd teach as well.