** Contains Spoilers **
Joanne Hunter has been married to her husband Paul for over 20 years. They have two daughters, Robin and Lana; Lana goes by Lulu. Joanne's best friend Eve lives next door with her husband, Brian. Eve recently had a miscarriage and believes her body is falling apart or that she has something wrong because she is always in pain. There's also Eve's mom who is trying her best but ultimately keeps annoying her daughter. Before the pain becomes too bad for her to take, she joins Joanne for tennis lessons with a man 20 years their junior who they both admit is rather attractive. Her grandfather is in a nursing home, sharing a room with another elderly man, and her grandfather thinks she is actually her mother, his daughter, Linda. When Paul decides they should separate, their daughters initially blame her for it. She already has something of a strained relationship with Robin, the eldest, so this doesn't help. On top of the things going on around her, shortly after her husband moves out, she starts getting strange phone calls from a voice that sounds androgynous and eventually turns threatening.
Honestly, I loved the first book of hers that I've read, called "See Jane Run," which was released in 1991. It was very much an edge-of-your-seat thriller and I'm waiting for my fiancé to read it so we can watch the made-for-TV adaptation. This one... did not leave me on the edge of my seat and I took a bit longer to read this one than the other one. Most of this book is not about the mysterious/threatening phone calls; most of this is actually about the stuff going on in her life and particularly Eve's life. I think Paul was a complete tool and a total jerk. Brian was no better when he decided to assault Eve. Honestly, if Brian is telling the truth and he and Eve are just married, but not romantically, they should really either seek out a therapist or -- I shudder to suggest -- divorce since he physically assaulted her. The other characters are frankly too small to really mention.
Fielding did a good job making you question who the seemingly androgynous caller could be in this one, but in reflecting on the other book of hers that I mentioned, I feel like she may have gotten better with her writing after this book was published in 1986. I feel like focusing so much on the other stuff in her life was a bit distracting and prevented me from being on the edge of my seat. The scene with the face-off with the caller should've been longer.. I also wish we would've found out definitively if Paul cheated on her with Judy.
*shrugs* It was still a good read, but not as good as "See Jane Run." 3 stars.