The Deep End

Joanne Hunter's secure suburban world is falling apart. Her husband's desertion after twenty years of marriage leaves her stunned. Eve, her best friend, is strangely distant. Her grandfather, who has been a pillar of strength and support, lies ill and helpless in a nursing home. Lana and Robin, her teenage daughters, claim every ounce of her energy and devotion and all the love she feels she has lost.

Only one person seems to care -- a stranger with a rasping voice, a tormentor with a vicious mind. Danger and despair close in with each ring of the telephone. Each deadly message lures her inexorably towards the deep end…

From the Paperback edition.

Fielding (Kiss Mommy Goodbye explores the seemingly inexorable disintegration of a middle-aged Long Island woman's life in this chilling, suspenseful tale. Subservient, self-deprecating Joanne Hunter suddenly becomes inundated by traumas. First, her husband moves out of their house to slake his restlessness and dissatisfaction. Stunned by his abrupt departure, Joanne seeks support from her best friend and neighbor, psychology professor Eve Stanley, but Eve now suffers from some unidentified illness which she believes is fatal. Eve frantically insists that debilitating pains wrack her body, although her husband tells Joanne that they are psychosomatic ailments. While these crises unfold, senility plagues Joanne's beloved grandfather, and her two adolescent daughters bicker incessantly. Most unnerving of all are the inexplicable threatening phone calls that Joanne receives at the same time that someone dubbed "the Suburban Strangler" terrorizes Long Island. Fielding neatly delineates Joanne's fear, loneliness, and the courage with which she confronts her problems. Paperback rights to NAL; Doubleday Book Club dual main selection; Reader's Digest Condensed Books selection; Literary Guild alternate.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"Fielding has made the woman-in-jeopardy genre her own."
--People

"Fielding knows how to turn the screws of suspense."
--The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)

New York Times bestselling author of Missing Pieces