The Secret Hour
Grade : C-

I seem to have the same reaction after reading a Luanne Rice novel as I do when I finish watching a Lifetime TV movie ­ I put down the tissue box with a snort of derision at myself for having spent 2+ hours being blatantly (and skillfully) manipulated through a mire of anguish and despair in order to reach a pre-packaged happy ending. Go ahead and call me a masochist, because yes, I come back for more; this is the fifth book I've read by Luanne Rice.

Though they're marketed primarily as Women's Fiction, I've found that many of Luanne Rice's novels nonetheless share two important characteristics with classic romance novels: (1) a romantic relationship, albeit usually slow-developing, between two lead characters; and (2) a HEA ending. It's actually that second element which has disappointed me in some of this author's previous books. I'm not let down by the writing, which can be melodramatic but also evocative and compelling in its own way. I'm not thrilled with the formulaic characterizations that seem to reappear, but they are likable enough that I can live with them. What has bothered me most in the Luanne Rice novels I've read is that everything ends too happily. I feel manipulated ­ tricked into spending hours fascinated (and horrified) by the nearly unflagging misery and angst of the characters, only to have everything tied up in a neat bow a few pages from the end.

Don't get me wrong, I love happy endings, but I want to believe in them. I want to watch the evolution of a relationship, cheer for it, root for it. I don't want to witness a handful of mostly chance encounters where the characters spend more time staring at each other soulfully than actually talking and discovering what there is to love about each other. Unfortunately, The Secret Hour is no exception to the formula Ms. Rice frequently employs. It yanks your heart-strings from page one and doesn't let up for the next three-hundred-something pages.

Marine Biologiest Kate Harris is in northern coastal Connecticut in desperate search of her younger sister Willa, who disappeared six months earlier. The last communication Kate received from her sister was a postcard from a seaside inn in Silver Bay - the same area and timeframe when a serial killer currently on death row was stalking and killing many of his victims. Convinced that her sister ­ who matches the victim profile ­ was one of Greg Merrill's unknown victims, Kate has come to Connecticut to convince Merrill's defense attorney, John O'Roarke, to ask his client about her sister and help determine if Merrill was involved in her disappearance.

John O'Rourke is a man with huge issues. His wife died in a freak car accident two years before, his two children (ages 11 and 14) are in dire need of nurturing/stability, and he's working overtime on an appeal for Merrill that makes him extremely unpopular in the town that's been always been his home. He definitely doesn't need the added burden of deciding whether or not to breach lawyer-client privilege to help the attractive (but possibly overcome with grief) sister of a potential new victim of the client he's trying to extricate from death row.

Kate's request creates a serious ethical dilemma this already stretched-too-thin man doesn't need. This is no grandstanding defense attorney trying to make a name for himself no matter who he lets loose on the street. John is a noble man, a good man who truly believes that even the guilty deserve every chance that representation can provide them. He believes in the law, justice, and every citizen's right to due process and appeal. What do you think ­ does he decide to help Kate at the possible expense of his vicious, psychopath client? I'm not telling, but I bet you can guess.

Add to this mix two really cute dogs who play important parts and a lot of time spent viewing the action from the point-of-view of John's depressed, grief-stricken children. Ms. Rice employs children as narrators in many of her books, and she has a believable way of creating what could really be the inner thoughts of unhappy children. These kids are messes, and understandably so. They miss their mom, they miss their dad (since he's working so hard they barely see him), they are scared, confused and lonely. It's heartbreaking to witness what they're going through, especially from their perspectives. Unfortunately, because it's so obviously manipulative, it comes across as another way to trumpet, "Tragedy and weeping ahead!" The pathos is ladled on thickly - it's impossible not to feel for these good kids having a terrible time, but the lack of subtlety engenders less rather than more empathy and sympathy.

The children love Kate nearly from their first chance encounter, and it is through the children that Kate and John are thrown together on multiple occasions, even after he rejects her initial plea for his assistance. Both of them were betrayed by their spouses in their marriages, so neither one is looking for a relationship, nor does either trust easily. They are a good match in their wariness and uncertainty. Unfortunately, we don't get to witness much of the journey they make from there to the HEA (except in their separate heads), so the conclusion feels forced and artificial.

There is a mystery here, and it's not as simple as what happened to Kate's sister. There may be another murderer using Greg Merrills MO while he's death row. How? Who? Why? What really happened to Willa? John springs into action trying to find out, earning Kate's devotion and potentially ending his own career. The resolution of the mystery is somewhat confusing, and there's a point where the book nearly sailed into the nearest wall because it asked for too much suspension of disbelief. We won't even get into the impossibility of a man being on death row within months of his arrest.

If you're a real fan of Lifetime TV movies, then you may like The Secret Hour more than I did. There are things to like, as long as you know what to expect and have an affinity for emotional rollercoaster rides. After I finished Dream Country, the last emotional rollercoaster I read by Ms. Rice, I swore it would be my last one. Not because I hated it, but because I felt so used in the end. I felt exactly that way this time around too, and I won't be reading Ms. Rice's work again for a long time. It may take a while to drain the sap from my veins after the treacly, unbelievable ending to this book.

Reviewed by Nicole Miale
Grade : C-
Book Type: Women's Fiction

Sensuality: Kisses

Review Date : February 24, 2003

Publication Date: 2004

Review Tags: 

Recent Comments …

Nicole Miale

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
What's your opinion?x
()
x