Product Description

A riveting novel that begins with a murder in an old Connecticut barn and reaches its climax on Broadway. We first meet Katie Byrne at seventeen. A tall beauty with reddish-gold hair, she has always wanted to be an actress. Her two best friends share her passion for the theatre, and the three girls have spent much of their childhood rehearsing plays in an old barn in Connecticut. Leaving early one day to help her mother prepare dinner, Katie realizes she has left her schoolbooks at the barn and she and her older brother return to retrieve them. When they arrive, they find the barn, the setting of so many happy dreams, has become the scene of a nightmare: one of Katie's friends has been raped and murdered, and the other lies unconscious. Ten years later, Katie, a struggling actress in New York, is still haunted by the tragedy. Her friend Carly remains in a coma, and Katie desperately wants to achieve success and stardom not only for herself but also for her two old friends. Her big chance comes when she is discovered and wins a major role in a Broadway play. A promising love affair adds to the excitement of working on Broadway; but Katie must face the demons of the past before she can embrace the possibilities of the future.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #248447 in Books
• Published on: 2002-02-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

Review
For Barbara Taylor Bradford: 'The storyteller of substance' The Times 'Queen of the genre' Sunday Times 'Few novelists are as consummate as Barbara Taylor Bradford at keeping the reader turning the page. She is one of the world's best at spinning yarns.' Guardian

About the Author
Barbara Taylor Bradford was born and raised in England. She started her writing career on the Yorkshire Evening Post and later worked as a journalist in London. Her first novel, A Woman of Substance, became an enduring bestseller and was followed by twenty-three others, including the bestselling Harte series. In 2006 The Ravenscar Dynasty began an epic new family series around Ravenscar and the house of Deravenel. Barbara's books have sold more than eighty-one million copies worldwide in more than ninety countries and forty languages. In October of 2007, Barbara was appointed an OBE by the Queen for her services to literature. She lives in New York City with her husband, television producer Robert Bradford.

Customer Reviews

A disappointment to fans of Barbara Taylor Bradford
As a devoted fan of Barbara Taylor Bradford I had great expectations of her new novel but this book lacks the quality of her previous work. This is a first attempt at writing a mystery and the initial 'plot' works well. However, the book veers off on a tangent that has no bearing on the beginning scenes and concentrates on a trip to Yorkshire where we are introduced to a whole web of characters who actually have no bearing on the rest of the book. Having got know the characters through Barbara's consumate descriptions the story suddenly swings back to America and these characters have no relation on the rest of the novel. In Barbara's previous novels the main character is devloped so descriptively gaining complete empathy from the reader,however, there is very little insight into the character of Katie Byrne and this deems to make a shallow read. All the action (and what should have comprised the majority of the book) happens in the last two chapters; a sudden love-affair that springs out of nowhere and a disappointing conclusion to the mystery given the initial intricate plot. A great shame and I hope that Barbara Bradford soon reverts the tried and tested formulae.

Avid Reader
I wish I had read the previous reader's review before buying this book. This must be the most appallingly written book.Starting with a murder,it then moves to England where the heroine becomes a star, returns to the U.S. on Broadway, whoopee, meets the hero and the murder is solved through DNA in last 2 chapters. All stereotyped " beautiful, brilliant" cardboard Characters. If Mrs Bradford didn't have enough money ,I would accuse her of taking it and running.