I picked up this book out of sheer boredom, as my mum had just finished reading it and was gushing as to how good a writer Sidney Sheldon is. Now to me, he's the guy who devised "I dream of Jeannie" (As any one who has watched a large amount of daytime tv will know.) I remeber reading one of his books before and quite enjoying it, so I thought this one would be the perfect thing to read while sunbathing on a particularly sunny afternoon.
I won't give you all the plot, because it will spoil the ending when you read it, and I hate that when someone does it to me!

Dana Evans is an anchorwoman on a washington TV station and has returned from covering the war in Sarajevo. She's covering a particularly strange story of five members of the same family all dying in the same year in five gruesome accidents. The family in question is the Winthrops, the most well known and influential family in washington.
Dana seems to think it is a bit odd that the whole family has been killed in the space of a year, but the rest of the world seems to think it is just a series of tragic coincidences.
She starts to investigate the deaths, with the idea that the family have been killed off in some sort of conspiracy. The more she delves into the family's history, the stranger it becomes. The family are like the Waltons, everyone who she speaks to loved and respected them and it seems they had no enemies whatsoever. Her investigations lead her a bit too close to the truth and suddenly her life is in danger too.....
Danas trail leads her all over the world, to Paris, Italy and finally to Russia, where a nailbiting climax brings the story to a close.
If that wasn't enough for Dana to cope with, the poor woman has to deal with a one armed refugee, a newscaster boyfriend and a model ex girlfriend to contend with.

The story moves quickly and you end up wondering who to trust, there are allies and foes at every turn of the page.
People in the story whose characters you are sure of end up suprising you completely and doing things you would never have of expected.

The story is standard Sheldon fayre and his fans will love it. Plenty of suspense and action to fill all 394 pages.

I feel the book is quite similar in format to some of Sheldons other books, but that is not a bad thing. He has a tried and tested formula which allows him to write a bestseller every time. If you are wanting an intelectually challenging read, then this book is not for you. But if you can use your imagination, let yourself get carried away with the story and its characters, you are in for one hell of a ride.