Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, has written a review of The Price by Alexandra Sokoloff. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.
The Price by Alexandra Sokoloff
Non-series
St. Martin's Press (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 0-312-35751-6 (0312357516)
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-35751-1 (9780312357511)
Publication Date: February 2008
List Price: $23.95
Synopsis (from the publisher): Boston's Briarwood Medical Center is a bewildering maze of six separate hospitals symbiotically entwined, connected by glass bridges, underground tunnels, indoor and outdoor gardens -- its own self-contained city. But Briarwood, like every hospital, is also a threshold ... to the other side.
Idealistic Boston District Attorney Will Sullivan has it all: a beautiful, beloved wife, Joanna; an adorable five-year old daughter, Sydney, and a real shot in the Massachusetts Governor's race. Then Will's life is shattered when Sydney is diagnosed with a malignant, inoperable tumor. Now Will and Joanna are living at Briarwood Hospital, waiting for their daughter to die. Joanna is slowly losing her mind with grief and Will himself starts to question his own sanity. He has begun to see bizarre and inexplicable things around him -- patients disappearing from elevators, monstrous nuns watching from the shadows.
The strange occurrences seem to center around a charismatic counselor named Salk, who befriends Will and talks mysteriously about the power of faith to heal. But when Sydney suddenly, miraculously begins to improve, Will suspects that Joanna has made a terrible bargain to save their daughter's life. Now he must uncover the truth in order to save them all.
Review: Alexandra Sokoloff's second thriller, The Price, ponders the question: for what price, and at what cost, is one willing to pay to save someone they love.
Will Sullivan, the son of a former governor of Massachusetts, has announced his candidacy for the same office when his daughter, Sydney, is diagnosed with stomach cancer. Both he and his wife Joanna are devastated. The tumor is inoperable and there seems to be nothing the doctors can do other than make her comfortable. While Will wonders the halls of the hospital in which his daughter is dying, he sees and hears what he can only believe are hallucinations ... or miracles. A young boy suffering from advanced leukemia that has but hours to live is, the following day, dressed and ready to go home, apparently cured. A policeman shot several times in the head and chest, not only survives but is up the next day awaiting his discharge papers. A man, just skin and bones dying of AIDS, is later seen walking around, the picture of health. Is prayer the answer? In the hospital chapel, Will goes to pray but is met by a man named Salk who tells him there is a way to save his daughter. But would Will be willing to pay the price?
The Price is simultaneously a mesmerizing yet decidedly eerie novel. It penetrates the mind to the depths of irrational fear then spawns an optimistic sense of euphoria. Most readers will be able to picture themselves in the position of Will or his wife Joanna and quickly answer that yes, whatever it takes, no matter the price, save my daughter. And yet, can the price be too high?
This suspenseful novel reads much like an episode from The Twilight Zone, a real situation in a surreal environment. The Price is fascinating, absorbing, and hard to put down.
Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of The Price and to St. Martin's Press for providing a copy of the book for this review.
Review Copyright © 2008 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.
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