Ross M. (Parrothead) reviewed on 9/15/2006 + 533 more book reviews

The grand, operatic gesture dominates Steel's 36th novel, a tightly crafted, if utterly unsuspenseful, tale that pits honor against ambition in high places. Peter Haskell has it all: a beautiful wife, three great sons, a satisfying job as president of the world's leading pharmaceutical firm?and the formula for a new drug, Vicotec, that promises to revolutionize chemotherapy. Awaiting the results of a French specialist's final testing of Vicotec, Peter also has a hotel room at the Ritz in Paris, which puts him in proximity to fellow guest Olivia Thatcher, the wife of a Virginia senator whose eyes are set firmly on the White House. Peter's world begins to spin apart when he learns that Vicotec is not the miracle he hoped for but a potential killer. But of what importance is such a turn of events in the face of l'amour? This is Paris, after all, the perfect setting for Peter to approach Olivia one night; on the steps of Montmartre, the two realize that they are soul mates, and that their marriages are, in fact, empty. All too soon, however, the lovers must return to reality?Olivia, to her husband's offer of $1 million a year to stay by his side; Peter, to untold millions if he'll just fib a little bit about those test results; and so both must face their own, ultimate moral test. Steel leaves no cliche unturned in this garden of predictabilities, but the fauna is glitzy?Catherine Deneuve and Clint Eastwood make cameo appearances?the flora is bright and, in the end, all's well that end's well, which is, after all, the only way her fans would have it.
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