Sleeping Beauty

March 8, 2004
The criminal at the heart of bestseller Margolin's unsatisfying 10th thriller is particularly heinous. Late one night in Portland, Ore., he assaults teenager Ashley Spencer, rapes and kills Ashley's friend Tanya, a sleepover guest, and stabs Ashley's father to death. Ashley miraculously escapes, but her brush with terror is far from over. A few months later, just as she and her mother, Terri (out of town on the night of the attack), are beginning to re-engage with the world, the killer strikes again, murdering Terri and leaving another woman, Casey Van Meter, in a coma on the grounds of Ashley's new school, the exclusive Oregon Academy. Ashley doesn't witness the crime, but she sees Joshua Maxfield, the school's writer-in-residence, at the scene, clutching a bloody knife. Wondering why her quiet, loving family has been targeted by this madman, she goes into hiding in Europe, returning to Portland years later to bear witness when Maxfield is finally apprehended and tried. But is he guilty? And what was the motive for this crime spree? The search for answers generates a modicum of suspense, but the book never really commands much interest, thanks to clumsy plotting and even clumsier prose. Much of the story is revealed in flashbacks, framed by scenes from a reading in a Seattle bookstore given by Casey's twin brother, Miles Van Meter, who has written a bestselling true-crime book about the case and his comatose sister (and yes, it's as contrived as it sounds). Margolin (The Ties That Bind
, etc.) has imagined a particularly lurid and sensational crime, but he fails to realize virtually any of its inherent dramatic potential. (Apr. 2)

Forecast:
The publisher is making a big promotional push, including a 14-city author tour, that should ensure placement on bestseller lists.

February 15, 2005
Miles van Meter is doing a reading from his true crime best seller. Little does he know that his career as a serial killer -turned -author is about to come to an end. Another man is on death row for his crimes, and the only person who can put the pieces together thinks Miles is her long-lost and caring relative. When confronted at last by this survivor of his heinousness, Miles does not hesitate to implicate his twin sister in his career of death. Here is a character with no redeeming qualities. Margolin's story is so horrifying, his description of the murders in question so violent, the crimes' eventual resolution so easy to guess, that it seems this work, well read by Suzanne Houston, must be a parody of the true crime thriller. It's over the top. But given Margolin's reputation, libraries should consider for larger listening collections. -Joanna M. Burkhardt, Coll. of Continuing Education Lib., Univ. of Rhode Island, Providence

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