This is a tautly written mystery by an oustanding writer. The one thing this book shares with "Life Penalty" is an unsympathetic protagonist. I didn't like Jess at all. (I detested Gail in "Life Penalty.") I didn't like the inappropriate way Jess and her brother in law Barry would needle her. She would get on the defensive and make inappropriate responses and rise to what she perceived to be his bait. Barry really was not the ogre she claimed him to be in the story. I didn't like the ending, either. Like "Life Penalty," the story ends on an unsatisfactory murder note. Again, this was well written, but it really was a let down.

The heroine is a bit of a psycho case and dealing with long discursive commentaries on the thoughts running through her head meant I could only listen to the tape in small doses. The plot isn't bad and the ending certainly has a punch. My recommendation is to pick up the book and then skip the sections that go on forever. You can fast forward the tape (which I did) but that increases the cost per minute of listening to an unacceptable value equation. Ms. Fielding does do a reasonable job reading her own work, but it's not enough to make up for those interminable run-on passages

Of all the people who wrote reviews for this book, I have a completely differant opinion. I have never read a book that I loved sooo much and couldn't put down for a second.

The back biting, clawing and scratching leaves no one unscathed. Jill is back bitten, clawed and scratched by her husband's lover, Nicole. Both women back bite, claw and scratch each other. David's ex-wife is a barracuda extraordinaire who leaves nothing and no one in her path unharmed. Even Jill is a bit of a back biter, clawer and scratcher in that she was half of an extra marital affair couple when David was still married to the barracuda. David's anorexic daughter gets into the back biting, clawing and scratching by pitting the barracuda against Jill. Beth earns her stripes and her self respect by killing her abusive husband (David's partner) and learns the fine art of back biting, clawing and scratching. Put on your suit of armor -- this book is gritty. OUCH! (One hopes that nasty Nicole gets what she deserves -- a taste of her own back biting, clawing and scratching medicine. She truly was one hellcat)!

This is a short book and although it's not as deep as some of Ms. Fielding's books, it's highly entertaining. I mean, not everything has to have deep meaning, right? If you want a great beach book this is it. You like the protaganist, Jill, from the first page. I have never found a Joy Fielding protaganist I did not like or identify with yet. The story grabs you right off as a woman walks up to Jill at a company picnic and tells her she plans on stealing her husband. It is very bold and different and you hate this young, sexy woman with a passion! You want Jill to beat the stuffing out of her! It is a witty, endearing book and since I have read it twice, like many of this author's books, I highly recommend it. It won't take long to read through and it is a great escape!

Bright, independent Jill found the perfect catch in handsome, rich--and married--lawyer David Plumley. Four years after Jill gets him to the altar, she finds her own position in David's life threatened by a young law intern at his office. Of course, Jill knows firsthand that David is susceptible to the attentions of other women. He'd been cheating on his wife before she met him. But she'd always thought, "well, I'm the only one he left Elaine to marry. So I'm safe." But the adversary here is powerful. Jill has big decisions to make here--and not just about whether or not she still wants David badly enough to fight for him. This crisis forces her to look at everything she's believed, and to re-evaluate it all. Great reading. There's a murder in this book, but unlike other Fielding books, it's solved early on. Later events in the book are influenced by what happens there, however. Enjoy this earlier work by Joy Fielding, now reissued for your reading pleasure!

I didn't like Gail either and thought she was the single biggest idiot to ever hit the literary pages. The loss of a child is the worst possible loss, but Gail was just such a loathsome character and did such irrational, stupid things even by trauma standards.

One thing that irked me was early in the book, after Gail learned of her daughter's murder, she pretended the hospital where she [Gail] was admitted was a setting. I didn't like the way the doctors were called actors. I didn't like the whole scenario, e.g. calling the hospital a "setting," the hospital personell "understudies," herself the "center of attention" and a doctor "a distinguished looking actor wearing a white coat," who was clearly a doctor and to REALLY add insult to injury, the "an actress in a white uniform." That whole stupid business of converting the hospital into a stage for her fantasies was an insult to everyone's intelligence.

Everybody else seemed to feel Gail was an irrational idiot. The most stupid thing she did short of that Halloween bit the park was to just accuse a man of killing her child by saying to him, "I'm her mother." The poor guy must have wondered WHOSE mother -- Jane Pauley's?! That was dangerous and just too stupid for belief.

Everything Gail did was illogical, from the park to the rental rooms to the false accusation to the stupid way she related to people and lastly, the really bad ending. I didn't like the ending at all and could not see how it could work. The ending was really a beginning, in a way and it was just so bad it made Gail even more loathsome. I didn't like her in the first place.

This author has written some truly good books, but this one falls far short of the mark. I agree with the other reviewers that Gail is for the birds. She plain made no sense! She repeatedly did dangerous things and one stupid thing that really stands out in the minds of most readers is the way she point blank accused a man who was staying at the same flop house she was renting. I also thought her hitch hiking escapades were implausible and just plain stupid. She had no right to criticize her surviving daughter Jennifer when she [Gail] was a guilty party. All that stupid woman did was sneak around, commit irrational acts and lie. Jack was a saint for putting up with her. And, yes, why didn't he or somebody call the house to be sure she didn't lapse into another irrational fit? I think somebody, like an available neighbor or a visiting nurse should have supervised her. Gail was clearly a danger to herself and others. I really didn't like the way she blamed Jennifer's boyfriend for killing Cindy. (The brief glimpses the reader is given of Cindy portray a spoiled girl). I am glad Jennifer wised up and bailed out on gail. I really didn't like Gail.

Gail had the perfect life until her six year old daughter, Cindy, was brutally raped and murdered. After that, Gail's only mission in life was to find the monster who did this. I notice that many of the readers here have a strong dislike for Gail, and in many ways, I can understand that. However, we have to remember the kind of loss that Gail has suffered. Nothing could be worse than having your child murdered. How is Gail supposed to function like a "normal" person, considering what happened? She repeatedly puts her life in danger in an effort to catch the killer, and it's obvious that part of her doesn't really want to live. Her plans to find this killer make no sense at all, and I felt tremendous sympathy for her husband, Jack and daughter, Jennifer throughout all of this. Gail so desperately needed help, but she refused to get it. Even when she finally did see a psychiatrist, she told him that she wouldn't let him help her.

In this book, Joy Fielding takes you on a journey that no one wants to take - losing your child to murder. You get to experience this through Gail's eyes. Although the ending wasn't quite what I expected, the book was still very good overall.

The Transformation centers around three young girls in Hollywood. In the midst of the stories of each girl, a cult is at the center. I found the story to be way too long with an uninteresting plot. Not one of Fielding's better novels.