Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
A present-day Scrooge with an evil bent, wealthy New Orleans oilman Adam Claiborne, who has taken up loan sharking during the recession, tracks down and kills a young couple who have failed to pay off their debt. The next day, he goes to church, expecting to receive absolution as usual from his sycophantic confessor, but instead finds a new priest who tells him, "Until you know the sorrows of your victims, your sins cannot be forgiven." Claiborne's sleep that night is troubled, and he wakes to find himself in the body of one of his victims, Charlie Sinclair. With Charlie's wife Monique, he must live through the inexorable chain of events leading to the murders while trying to somehow redeem himself in time to save their lives. Screenwriter Schilling shows deft storytelling ability in her first novel; starting with the timeworn premise of an unrepentant sinner receiving his supernatural comeuppance, she manages to keep the plot fresh, lively and supplied with plenty of suspenseful twists. The story's effectiveness is sometimes marred by wooden prose, but in general this is a promising debut that will surely entertain genre devotees.
(Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. )
From Library Journal
In this suspenseful thriller, New Orleans loan shark Adam Claiborne kills a couple he believes has cheated him. When he is refused absolution and told he must see the world through the eyes of his victims, he awakens to find himself in the body of one of them--three days before Adam murdered him. He learns that his victims were innocent and tries to prevent the murders. But in spite of himself, he continues to duplicate the actions that led to the murders. If he cannot break free of this pattern, not only will the couple die but so will their child. This amoral, Catholic-by-the-motions man discovers that he is a better person than he thought. While this first novel is occasionally confusing (given two simultaneous Adams, with differing understandings of what is going on), it is generally well done and deserves to be in most suspense collections.- Marylaine Block, St. Ambrose Univ. Lib., Davenport, Ia.
(Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. )
