Kirkus Reviews
~ Steel (Lightning, p. 422, etc.), the Queen of Conjunctions (both human and grammatical) returns, this time with a page-turning, incantatory love story that's hard to beat and harder to put down. Two well-heeled lovers meet at the Ritz in Paris, ``and a lifetime forever change[s] in a single moment.'' Successful and immaculately shirted Peter Haskell, pharmaceutical bigwig, has come to France to expedite the manufacturing of Vicotec, a drug that--if the lab tests are positive--will revolutionize cancer care. Peter, 44, and so well turned out that no one knows he was once a poor Wisconsin farmboy, married Katie, the boss's daughter, and compromised his ideals all the way to the tune of three sons and a large, splendid house on six acres in Greenwich, Connecticut. Now, forced to wait five days for Vicotec's test results, he spies Olivia Thatcher, 34, the big-eyed, waiflike, neglected wife of Senator Anderson Thatcher, and becomes instantly fascinated. The night of a bomb threat, Peter follows tragic Olivia (she's lost a son to cancer) down the Champs-Elys es. Later, after six hours at a Montmartre caf , the two have bonded for life. When Olivia is too miserable to return to her empty life at the Ritz, Peter follows her again--this time to a quaint fishing village in the south of France, where, after salade ni oise, they become lovers. But each has obstacles keeping them apart. Peter returns to New York to battle with his family over Vicotec; Olivia promises Andy, a presidential wannabe, that she'll stick it out through the election. But will the lovers be able to continue behind their old facades? In the end, with nothing but each other, and a few other little goodies, they face the future together. A bread-and-butter chanson d`amour that no one could write better--and many have tried. (Literary Guild main selection) Copyright 1999 Kirkus Reviews
Library Journal Reviews
No word yet on the plot of the latest by the predictable but fruitful author of the best-selling Lightning. Look for a mid-November on-sale date. Copyright 1995 Cahners Business Information.
Publishers Weekly 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. Major ad/promo; Literary Guild main selection; simultaneous BDD Audio; British, translation, first serial, electronic, performance rights: Janklow & Nesbit Associates. (Nov.) Copyright 1995 Cahners Business Information.
Publishers Weekly Reviews
FIVE DAYS IN PARIS Danielle Steel. Dell, $6.50 ISBN 0-44022284-2. Steel's 36th novel, an 18-week PW bestseller, is a tale of l'amour fou between two Americans in Paris who are married to other people. (Feb.)