The Pact

Olivia, Jamie and Annie, the protagonists of Norman's new romantic suspense novel (her seven previous novels include Spellbound and Fascination), meet as teenagers in the 1970s at the American School in London. When their parents are all killed in a helicopter crash en route to visit them, they resolve to become lifelong friends, making a pact to drop everything should one of them get into a serious jam. They pursue vastly different paths: Jamie, renouncing his family's shipping business, opens an ad agency in Boston; Annie settles into quiet married life with an English banker in a small Oxfordshire village; Olivia, a linguist and free spirit, flits through countries almost as quickly as she runs through men. Not until many years have passed do the three have occasion to call on one another. Annie, defeated by the overwhelming pressures of being a perfect wife and mother, turns to Olivia and Jamie for help in conquering her Valium addiction. A few years later, Jamie's patrician ex-wife tries to ruin his advertising career, and Olivia and Annie retaliate by concocting an elaborate scam to threaten her professional reputation. Meanwhile, Olivia clings to her independence, despite her continuing attraction to Jamie. However, when Olivia finds a cryptic note from Jamie's father to hers that leads her to suspect that their parents' deaths were more than a freak accident, her quest for information leads her into danger and she is forced to seek help from her friends. Though her characters are stock types, Norman delineates them with warmth and care, and she writes with admirable specificity about the novel's many settings. Occasionally, the narrative's extended time frame and flashback structure break the momentum, but the bond among the three friends is memorable and convincing. (June)