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FOR LOVE AND MONEY
by Leslie Glass
Ballantine Books, February 2006
304 pages
$6.99
ISBN: 0345447956


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Annie Custer has a boatload of problems. Her stockbroker husband Ben has retired from the world, citing post-traumatic stress following the events of 9/11 and a subsequent lawsuit filed against him by a former close friend. While Ben lounges in front of a TV morning, noon, and night, Annie's daughter Mag hides away in a bedroom in the Custers' New York apartment.

A recent high school graduate, Mag is convinced she has a brain tumor despite a normal brain scan and reassurances of perfect health from her doctor. Mag's 15-year-old sister Bebe has her own problems, including a growing addiction to marijuana. Annie feels overwhelmed as she tries to pay the bills on her own stockbroker salary while entrusting the welfare of her family to her homemaker, Dina.

Dina's decision to return home to Argentina comes at a particularly bad time for Annie. At the behest of her friend Carol Mack, Annie has visited Carol's parents on Staten Island and taken possession of a huge number of stocks hidden away in their home.

Carol's father is a rude, unkempt fellow, a former dentist married to a woman supposedly dying of cancer. Annie suspects that Mamie Teath's condition is actually due to starvation. Dr Dean Teath has no food in the decrepit house despite the fact that Carol sends prepared meals to her parents on a monthly basis.

Annie is appalled by the Teaths' abysmal living conditions and stunned by the wealth contained in Mamie Teath's stock folders. Annie discovers a large number of bearer bonds in the folders, and although it is slightly illegal and highly unwise to remove the bonds from the house, Annie takes them to her office along with the stocks. It's only when she shows them to her boss Brian that she finds that some of the bearer bonds are missing.

Annie's in a real pickle when Dr Teath demands the return of the stocks and bonds and Carol Mack turns against her. Annie feels that her life is falling apart at home and at work. Brian's obvious lust for her doesn't help, nor does the occasional appearance of Annie's dead mother in ghost-like form. Annie must solve the problem of the lost bonds, repair her friendship with Carol Mack, and pull her family members back from their downward spiral while at the same time saving her own sanity. It's a huge task, and may not be doable.

Complicated relationships and long-buried emotions mark the characters in this absorbing tale of two families engaged in the pursuit of love and money. Glass writes as well as anyone today, not only giving readers a realistic plot, but also resolving that plot in a believable manner.

Her characters grow over the course of the story, becoming stronger despite the calamities they face. As in real life, some problems remain at the end, although one suspects that with time they'll be resolved. And, as is often true in real life, justice is delayed, but not lost in the end. This is a hugely satisfying story for readers who enjoy a depth of emotion in their characters.

Reviewed by Mary V. Welk, April 2006

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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