Krishna
Sidney’s books are always fun to read. No deep thoughts or revelations, just fun. If you want fluff to read that does not stretch your thinking muscles much, then this is the right author for you.
We have reviewed many of his books earlier. Please see The Best Laid Plans and The Naked Face for just two examples.
The story starts with full force. Doris Whitney makes a final phone call to her daughter Tracy and then puts the gun to her temple and pulls the trigger.
Tracy is in love with an impossibly rich (old money) scion called Charles. There was a very uncomfortable visit she made to his parent’s house, after she told him that she was pregnant. The parents dripped disapproval in every pore and Tracy was mortified.
Anyway, she hears that her mother killed herself because of a very powerful man called Joe Romano, who has mob connections. He wanted to buy the company but took control before the deal could be legally finalized and destroyed it. She was in for millions of dollars in reparations – money that she did not have – and also the prospect of a long jail sentence. So she had no other way of escape than suicide.
Tracy is enraged. She vows to make Joe pay, no matter what it takes.
She goes with a pistol to Joe Romano’s flat and is surprised to find him young and suave. However, he surprises her, overpowers her and is about to rape her when she manages to shoot him and flee. She does not even make it past the airport. She is arrested and is bewildered to hear that she is being accused of having stolen a very valuable painting. Her court appointed lawyer is Perry Pope and he seems to believe in her story. He gets judge Henry Lawrence because he is trying to shut down the crime syndicate of Anthony Orsatti to whom Joe Romano is the right hand man. She has to plead guilty and will get a suspended sentence of three months.
Tracy goes along with the plan until she gets a bombshell in the courthouse. All of them had conspired to put her in prison for the next fifteen years. It was all a brilliant set up. Case closed.
She goes through the indignities in the prison including a brutal rape. When she says to the warden that she got her face smashed up ‘by falling off her bed’ she is sent to solitary. There, she realizes the jam she is in, and her anger blazes forth. Not against her cell mates who raped her because they are as much victims as she is, but against the people who put her there – Joe Romano, her lawyer Pope, the kingpin Orsatti. And Judge Lawrence. She will make them pay. And she will escape from the prison to do so.
This feels like the early Sheldon stories you have come to enjoy : like Master of The Game, Rage of Angels, to name two. It is already very enjoyable. Yes, typical, formulaic Sheldon story : but if you pick up a Sydney Sheldon story to read, this is what you expect – right?
There is a genius detective who comes to see her – genius but weird. He, Daniel Cooper, was commissioned to retrieve the painting from Tracy. He realizes that she was framed, makes his report and considers his job done, much to the dismay of Tracy, who was hoping he would now work to free her.
When she is harassed by a swedish bully, she gets protected by her roommate Ernestine, who admires her for her class and style. But when Ernestine informs her that she, Ernestine, is being released in a few weeks, Tracy knows she needs to get out or she will be a slave to the Swedish girl Big Bertha who has an eye on her – as a sex slave. The only thing protecting Tracy from Big Bertha is Ernestine. Ernestine respects Tracy for being classy and protects her from the other bullies there.
She manages to form a brilliant plan in a seemingly hopeless situation. (Though it is not central to the story – you know where the story is going by now as if a thousand watt searchlight has been shone on it – I will leave that part for those of you who plan to read it simply for the storytelling style of Sydney). After several pulse pounding moments of suspense, she wants to execute it but providence stops her. Big Bertha was on to her plans and going in the laundry basket would have been a surefire failure. But the girl she was babysitting, Amy, who was the warden’s daughter, fell into water. Disregarding her escape, Tracy goes in to save her, knowing that her plans for escape are now ruined.
But she does manage to get out and the sweet revenge starts. First she finds a banker who is on the lookout for girls who can do him a ‘favour’ for the favours he does them. Tracy goes as Laureen Hatford, Romano’s secretary in trouble because she forgot to order cheques as he wanted. Her dress is very provocative and the banker, Lester Torrence, falls for it hook line and sinker.
Now starts the fun. First Orsatti, the Mafia boss is convinced (by a frantic French bimbo calling him – yes you guessed it) that Joe is planning to elope with thirty thousand dollars (Oh, for the old times when that money was enough to chuck your life and go!) and the furious mafia boss sends him to sleep with the fishes. Next his trusted lawyer Perry Pope (through an ingenious ruse where Perry’s air conditioner has been sabotaged and ‘fixed’ by friends of Ernestine who is now a free women and their talent) is seen to be cheating on cards (a very high stakes game that Orsetti enjoys), he is sent ‘away’ too. Then Judge Henry Lawrence gets his turn. When he is a conference in Moscow, the Russian authorities are ‘tipped off’ that he is an American spy and sent to Siberia for fourteen years of hard labour after the evidence is convincing. With his empire unraveling, Orsatti is told that his turf will be ‘lent a helping hand’ by rival gangs. He is done, too.
I know that Sydney writes fluff and not to be taken seriously but even given that, this stretches credulity. I don’t just mean the fact that all these powerful folks who have been controlling society for decades fall like ninepins due to a well thrown bowling ball, Even the framing is clumsy. The various plants arrive exactly on time to Joe’s house when Orsetti is visiting; the ‘secret’ message sent by US to Judge Lawrence is revealed just by ignoring some words and putting together others to give a totally different meaning. Come on! These may be convincing in a children’s book but ,,,
Okay, okay, I know. Books written in the seventies by ‘fluff authors’ do not have intricate plot in them – at least some of them.
Having secured her revenge, she goes after her fiance. Finds that her older job is now not possible because of her criminal record. Does a brilliant ploy to get her severance pay (denied due to her criminal record) back by hacking into her ex bank’s computer (she was a security expert after all and had set up those same systems that she is now trying to thwart.)
When she observes her fiance and his ‘now’ wife, she is struck by how boring and aged they both look. She decides that this is punishment enough for them and she is now free. She finds though, that her criminal record does not allow her to do any work – not even work that requires security clearance. Then she tries a few jobs and is fired when people recognize her as ex con. In desperation, she decides to approach Conrod Morgan, the owner of a jewellery. He asks that she meet him after office hours and asks her to burgle a sack full of diamonds from a client’s house, when he is conveniently away on ‘business’ to provide himself with alibi. With no way out, she agrees. Conrad is not a scrupulous man, of course, and he neglects to tell her that he does not know all the security alarm systems in the house of his rich client Lois Bellamy.
She burgles, after setting the outside alarm off but is surprised by an additional alarm in the safe! She brilliantly acts her way out when the police arrive at the doorstep but when she is going back in the train is detailed by two FBI agents who are really cons sent by Morgan in case she had succeeded so that he does not have to pay her the agreed upon twenty five grand. The con men are Jeff Stevens ‘the younger cop’ and Brandon Higgins was ‘the older cop’. They are again outwitted by Tracy who manages to recover her stash in the brilliant way that only happens in Sydney Sheldon’s novels (tremendously unlikely in real life but fully enjoyable to read). Jeff is impressed.
She meets the jeweler, Conrad Morgan and tells him that he is the only one who could have double crossed her and demands double her original payment – now fifty thousand dollars. He is forced to comply.
She decides to start a new life in London and books her passage and runs into Jeff again. He proposes that they make a lot of money through a scam where Tracy plays both international chess champions traveling to London in the same ship simultaneously and win! His scam is a typical Sydney Sheldon plan – idiotic in practice but brilliant as a ‘fluff novel’ idea.
Meanwhile the jewel theft is discovered and the brilliant detective Daniel Cooper instantly finds out that she was the one behind the heist but with no evidence, they are unable to prosecute or even arrest her. (Another Sydneyism).
I realize that the Sheldon novels should be enjoyed like James Bond or Superman movies – with no scientific analysis. And this book is extremely enjoyable and I am not trying to spoil it for anyone. Just could not resist pointing out how improbable most scenes are. Having made the point, I will not repeat this criticism in this review.
More incidents follow. In fact the story feels like several simple tricks strung together to make up a long novel. Settling down in London, she gladly takes to the life of crime all over Europe under the tutelage of another rich conman. She only deceives the greedy and the evil people (OK, define ‘evil’ is not a luxury afforded to the reader) but uses her ability to become a totally different personality every time. There is an interesting scene of how she hoodwinked a greedy jeweler into buying back a diamond ear ring pair sold to her for a hundred grand at an inflated price of two hundred and fifty grand. (Hoping to sell it to her earlier persona for a very handsome profit!). There is a heist of diamonds on the Orient Express from the wife of a very rich and successful – but openly lecherous – movie producer. And so on
Daniel Cooper realizes that the string of new robberies in common are all traceable to Tracy Whitney, his old acquaintance and he doggedly pursues clues as per his usual genius.
There is more of the ingenious capers – how she managed to outwit the world’s best security system of a count’s castle as well as outwit a ferocious dog guarding the perimeter, how she managed to steal priceless jewelry from a lecherous movie producer – and how she lost some capers to Jeff Evans.
There are more scenes of best capers – again feels like clever tricks strung together. For instance she outwits a casino don convincing him that she has a money printing machine. And runs away with a lot of cash. (Real cash). Daniel Cooper is just seconds behind her. Finally she goes after a beautiful painting inside a highly secure museum. Meets Jeff Evans and refuses to be taken in by him – in spite of his persistent advances. However, with amazing ingenuity (but I did not say ‘practical ingenuity’,) she manages to get the painting – even having the museum give it away for a fraction of the price – only to have Jeff cart it off from her hotel pretending to be the delivery person!
Her new patron is a British jeweler called Gunther who is similar to Conrad and he hires both Jeff and Tracy for his daring thefts.
Next she agrees to go in a freight plane in a box next to another which has priceless diamonds. She is just to swap it with a duplicate bag prepared already and get back into the bag and the rest of it will be managed by the team she is working with – which includes Jeff.
When she just manages to do the switch and gets out, she is in a deep fever and Jeff tends to her and looks after her – saving her from her pursuers by taking her off to Amsterdam. She realizes that he is not the selfish trickster with her and falls in love with him.
For one final caper, they meet Gunther – Jeff wants them to retire but Tracy cannot resist the final swan song of a caper.
All the while the detective Daniel Cooper is hot on her tail. The final heist is also brilliantly planned with the entire police on their trail and Daniel trying to outwit her every move.
But, as I said, enjoyable as it is, it feels like a lot of short stories strung together, after the revenge part is over. Still, good to read and Sydney Sheldon fans will not be disappointed.
7/10
== Krishna