From Publishers Weekly
Two gorgeous widows go up against a nefarious multinational think tank in this airbrushed but goofily entertaining thriller by perennial bestseller Sheldon (The Sky Is Falling; Tell Me Your Dreams; etc.). Four scientists working for the New York–based Kingsley International Group have died or disappeared within 24 hours. Wolfish top boss Tanner Kingsley vows to find the perpetrator; meanwhile, stunning artist Diane Stevens, wife of a just-murdered KIG scientist, and supermodel Kelly Harris, whose husband has likewise been killed, find themselves under attack by mysterious strangers. Diane and Kelly form an uneasy alliance, though both spend most of their time ruminating on their wonderful (now dead) husbands: "I want to feel you stroking my breast.... I want to imagine that I can hear your voice saying that I make the best paella in the world...." The plot is straightforward: people are killed, women are in peril and an evil CEO (Tanner, gasp!) has a plot to take over the world. His technique involves controlling the weather, and in an intriguing short afterword, Sheldon explains the very real possibilities of just such a scenario. The on-the-lam ladies, Kelly and Diane, escape every assassination attempt with ridiculous ease, and other characters appear and disappear simply in order to get the author out of one plot pickle after another. Still, despite (or because of) Sheldon's blithe unconcern for logic and his just-add-water relationships, this is a breezily pleasing read. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
Readers don't expect literary genius from Sheldon, but they do expect to be entertained, and once again the popular TV-producer-turned-storyteller delivers the goods. When four top scientists at the imposing think tank KIG wind up dead in four different parts of the world, is it coincidence? Two of the victims' wives--the elegant artist, Diane, who just testified against a Mob boss, and the gorgeous model Kelly, who flew to New York from Paris at the behest of her dead husband's boss--inadvertently meet, and they find themselves connected because someone is apparently trying to kill them, too. It could be the Mob underlings who promised retribution against Diane for having testified against their Godfather. Or is it possible the women's husbands were so deep into their secret project for KIG that they may have been a threat to its secrecy, and now the wives must die, too? This novel is short on character development and long on cliched literary techniques, but it is, nevertheless, the best kind of guilty pleasure. Mary Frances Wilkens
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description

All around the globe, people are being reported dead or missing. At first these seem to be random incidents, but the police soon discover that all four of the victims are connected to Kingsley International Group, the largest think tank in the world.

Now someone is intent on murdering Kelly Harris and Diane Stevens, young widows of two of the victims. Forced together for protection, the two women embark on a terrifying game of cat and mouse against the unknown forces out to destroy them.

Taut with suspense and vivid characterization, the long-awaited Are You Afraid of the Dark? is Sidney Sheldon at the top of his game.


Download Description
In New York, Denver, Paris and Berlin, four people have died separately in apparent accidents. An important link between the victims rises up from their ashes: each was employed by Kingsley International Group (KIG), the world's largest think tank, involved with major military strategy, worldwide communications, and environmental issues. Soon, two of the murdered men's wives, Diane Stevens and Kelly Harris, find their own lives threatened. Terrified, suspicious of each other, and armed only with their wits and guile, the beautiful, terrified women become reluctant allies in a life and death game of cat-and-mouse. In his classic page-turning style that has become the standard, Sidney Sheldon combines smart, engaging characters and an intricate plot in a powerfully compelling and suspenseful novel sure to hit bestseller lists from coast to coast.


About the Author
As a legendary storyteller, novelist, and screenwriter, Sidney Sheldon remains one of the world's top bestselling authors, and is the only writer to have won an Oscar, a Tony, and an Edgar. He is also the recipient of the prestigious French Prix Litt#233;raire de Deauville award. All seventeen of Sheldon's previous novels have reigned at the top of the New York Times bestseller list. His second, The Other Side of Midnight, held the Times's then-record of fifty-two weeks on the list. Sheldon is the creator of TV's classic hit programs The Patty Duke Show, I Dream of Jeannie, and Hart to Hart. Additionally, he has won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, starring Cary Grant and Myrna Loy. Sheldon has twice won the Screenwriters Guild Award for Best Musical -- for Easter Parade and Annie Get Your Gun. The Guinness World Records 2004 heralds him as the most translated author in the world. Sheldon lives in Beverly Hills and Palm Springs, California, with his wife, Alexandra.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Kelly Harris and Diane Stevens have two terrible things in common. The first is that their brilliant husbands have been murdered, both victims of a killer or killers unknown who target people connected to the largest think tank in the world. Their second connection is even more terrifying: Their husbands' assassins have also targeted them. Intense suspense from a master of the genre.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"All around the globe, people are being reported dead or missing." "In Berlin, a woman vanishes from the city streets. In Paris, a man plunges from the Eiffel Tower. In Denver, a small plane crashes into the mountains. In Manhattan, a body washes ashore along the East River. At first these seem to be random incidents, but the police soon discover that all four of the victims are connected to Kingsley International Group (KIG), the largest think tank in the world." "Kelly Harris and Diane Stevens - young widows of two of the victims - encounter each other in New York, where they have been asked to meet with Tanner Kingsley, the head of KIG. He assures them that he is using all available resources to find out who is behind the mysterious deaths of their husbands. But he may be too late. Someone is intent on murdering both women, and they suffer a harrowing series of near escapes. Who is trying to kill them and why?" Forced together for protection, suspicious of each other and everyone around them, and trying to find answers for themselves, the two widows embark on a terrifying game of cat and mouse against the unknown forces out to destroy them.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Two gorgeous widows go up against a nefarious multinational think tank in this airbrushed but goofily entertaining thriller by perennial bestseller Sheldon (The Sky Is Falling; Tell Me Your Dreams; etc.). Four scientists working for the New York-based Kingsley International Group have died or disappeared within 24 hours. Wolfish top boss Tanner Kingsley vows to find the perpetrator; meanwhile, stunning artist Diane Stevens, wife of a just-murdered KIG scientist, and supermodel Kelly Harris, whose husband has likewise been killed, find themselves under attack by mysterious strangers. Diane and Kelly form an uneasy alliance, though both spend most of their time ruminating on their wonderful (now dead) husbands: "I want to feel you stroking my breast.... I want to imagine that I can hear your voice saying that I make the best paella in the world...." The plot is straightforward: people are killed, women are in peril and an evil CEO (Tanner, gasp!) has a plot to take over the world. His technique involves controlling the weather, and in an intriguing short afterword, Sheldon explains the very real possibilities of just such a scenario. The on-the-lam ladies, Kelly and Diane, escape every assassination attempt with ridiculous ease, and other characters appear and disappear simply in order to get the author out of one plot pickle after another. Still, despite (or because of) Sheldon's blithe unconcern for logic and his just-add-water relationships, this is a breezily pleasing read. Agent, Mort Janklow. (Sept.) Forecast: A heavy publisher blitz and a huge fan base guarantee that this will hit bestseller lists. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Four men connected to a major think tank die-and their wives get really suspicious. With a one-day laydown on September 14. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

AudioFile