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Kate really wants a baby. She’s not sure why, she just knows that she wants to have a family. She realizes that this will change her life with Willy, her long-time partner both in life and in business, but she thinks they can handle it. Willy isn’t so sure she’s ready for all the giving up that having a baby involves. Eventually Kate convinces Willy. They decide to have artificial insemination, for a number of reasons which make sense in terms of their lifestyle, their personal relationship, and so forth. This is where the story begins to go crazy. The Sperm Bank contacts them, after a simple Internet search. The company is very pushy, and does things which sound very odd, even to a reader who has nothing more than passing knowledge of this sort of thing. Kate is inseminated at home, with the salesperson from the company at her bedside. Too strange. Then Kate begins to feel pregnant, even though everyone is telling her she isn’t. The catering company lands a big job, which requires hiring more help. Somehow the Sperm Bank people get one of their relatives hired in at the catering company. Willy invites this person to move into the guesthouse, after knowing the woman less than a week. Crazy people start calling Kate, telling her not to have the baby which everyone tells her she isn’t pregnant with. UNHOLY BIRTH is very reminiscent of ROSEMARY’S BABY, only not as well written. Neiderman seems to have an agenda with regard to gay lifestyles, which isn’t a bad thing, but the way he beats the reader over the head about it is a bad thing. He’s didactic. Kate, as a character, needs some work. She checks out some things to the nth degree, but doesn’t own a copy of WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING, for instance. It never dawns on her to buy a pregnancy test kit. When things really go nuts around the house, it doesn’t faze her that the Sperm Bank people are willing to pay for security!! She listens to them when they tell her not to call the police after one of the security people is killed. Willy can’t seem to make up her mind at first, but then is just gung-ho for anything the SBP suggest. Nobody blinks an eye when Kate goes to a psychiatrist, picked by the SBP, and there is no paperwork and no insurance questions! What? This absolutely must be fiction! So – UNHOLY BIRTH isn’t the best suspense/thriller I’ve ever read. It requires a bit more willingness to suspend belief than I was prepared to do, but perhaps I’m pickier than most. Or perhaps not. Neiderman has a long list of prior publications; if you’ve liked his other stuff, than this may be another good read for you. I've got better books waiting to be read.
Reviewed by P. J. Coldren, August 2007
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