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Summary
Summary
Los Angeles TV producer Ariel Gold may be thirty-three years old, but due to amnesia, she has only one year of memory banked. So when Jack Spurling resurfaces in her life, she doesn't remember who he is. Then she learns that he was at the center of one of the most notorious stories she ever covered - that of a man who many feel got away with the murder of his wife. Reconstructing the events leading up to a trial that ended in a hung jury, Ariel finds herself getting closer to Jack & believing in his innocence. Jack's confident, intimate charm brings out in Ariel a powerful compulsion to unearth the truth. When she digs deeper into Jack's past, she uncovers more than she bargains for. And now events set in motion years ago are giving Ariel just one chance to decide between what she feels in her heart & what she knows in her gut.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
TV producer Ariel Gold steps in as on-air investigative reporter in her somewhat disappointing third outing, a slapdash follow-up to Double Take, which left Gold suffering traumatic amnesia after the murder of her twin sister. The first few chapters recap the events of the previous novel: on a pleasure cruise, Eve Spurling goes overboard after an argument with her husband, Jack; only a hung jury has kept him from a murder conviction. Now Gold looks again into the Spurling case for her television show Open File. Additional tension is supplied by the fact that Gold interviewed Spurling during his trial two years ago. She suspects he knows things about her she can't remember about herself. Mercer uses this suspicion to manipulate the reader's interest but never delivers any clear answers for all the teasingeven after Gold and Spurling begin an affair. Because Gold does not have a past, Mercer might have made her a new character, but does not, with the exception of Gold's weight loss, new wardrobe and appropriation of her dead twin's quirky sense of humor. Although the novel's first half makes smooth reading, extraneous characters clutter the stage in the second, and readers are likely to lose interest before the extremely untidy denouement. (Oct.) FYI: Double Take will be released simultaneously in paperback by Pocket. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Mercer (Double Take, 1997, etc.) hits her stride in this third suspense outing for TV newsmagazine reporter and amnesiac Ariel Gold. After implausibly losing her memory during a car-bombing in a Santa Monica parking structure (which also killed the twin sister she supposedly never met), Ariel emerges with an entirely changed personality. The old Ariel was the fat, dowdy, rather grim daughter of unloving parents; her sister Jane was an unconventional fashion model brought up in the South by a multimillionaire grandfather. When Ariels memory is erased, according to her friend Henry Heller, she takes on some of the qualities she might have claimed by nature if they hadnt been annihilated by lack of nurture. Right after the crash, Ariel starts spouting quotations the way Jane once did; she loses weight; shes more outgoing; she starts to flirt. With no memory of her job at the TV news show Open File, Ariel has to learn it all over again. By the time the reader gets to the start of Split Image, shes grown rather good at it. In fact, with her newfound charm, shes starting to do on-camera work, and Mercer surrounds her with a cast worthy of a weekly TV show: Henry, her friend, colleague, and lover; B.F. Coulter, her crusty, fond grandfather; B.F.s man Friday, Sarge McManus, an ex-cop; and a pair of elderly, eccentric neighbors. With all the groundwork laid, Ariel spends the rest of the story trying to help Jack Spurling, an accused murderer, smoke out the person who really killed his wife. But like everything else in Ariels life, nothing is ever black and white. Though Jack becomes her lover, she isnt even sureuntil a tantalizing endwhether hes innocent or only exploiting her. Mercer manages wit and dialogue as well as ever, but still hasnt quite conquered pacing (or suspense). Its great fun, nonetheless, to watch an intelligent authorand her intelligent heroineadvance. (Author tour)
Booklist Review
First introduced in Fast Forward (1995), TV producer Ariel Gold returns, more in control of her life even though her memory hasn't returned. After appearing in front of the TV camera for a change, she is contacted by Jack Spurling, a charming but secretive man claiming to know her. Does he hold clues to her missing past, or is he a sick murderer who escaped punishment thanks to a hung jury? Ariel decides to investigate, hoping to clear Jack's name. Unfortunately, it seems that his story has some holes in it, leaving her with an uncomfortable split image of the man she suddenly discovers she loves. Ariel's new job opens the way for a host of new adventures, though readers of previous episodes may regret Mercer's decision to ease nice-guy Henry Heller out of the running for Ariel's affection. Perfect for those who like their mysteries on the light side, especially if they don't mind a bit of romance in the bargain. (Reviewed October 1, 1998)0671556029Stephanie Zvirin
