From Publishers Weekly
Answering e-mail leads to danger for bestselling author Grace Loring in bestselling author Allen's 36th novel. Grace's autobiography, Hit or Miss, recounts her experience as a battered wife; she takes her infant daughter and seeks refuge from an abusive husband in the Vermont home of her brother, Gus, where she pursues a career writing and lecturing about abuse. Her work attracts many fans, including women in need of help. When she receives an e-mail from Stephanie Baine, whose abusive marriage and neglectful parents remind Grace of her own, she begins an e-mail dialogue, encouraging Stephanie to talk through her problems and confront them. Then trouble finds Grace as Stephanie's marriage ends in bloodshed, with Grace's e-mails key evidence for the trial. Worse, Stephanie may not be what she had claimed. Allen lays out her narrative in workmanlike prose, highlighted by touching family moments featuring Grace's daughter, Nicky, and ailing brother, Gus though stock secondary characters do little to enhance the story. Writing under the name of Bette Davis's character in Now, Voyager, Allen (Daddy's Girl, Parting Gifts, etc.) has long favored smart women who don't catch on as fast as the audience, strong women who struggle against denial, neglect, fear, anger and frustration. This novel boasts that kind of heroine, but the tale loses power toward the end as plot twists meant to increase dramatic intensity strain credibility. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Allen, the popular author of several works of contemporary fiction that often deal with incest, abuse, or other awful human behaviors, may be most familiar to readers for her book Daddy's Girl (1980), which detailed her own childhood and the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her father. Here Allen tells the story of Grace Loring, a onetime victim of spousal abuse who is now a successful novelist. Despite still being haunted by her experiences, Grace often provides advice and counsel to those of her fans suffering domestic violence. She soon begins a personal correspondence via e-mail with a young woman who is suffering horrifying acts of abuse from her husband, which she describes to Grace in graphic detail. When the woman mysteriously stops writing, Grace fears the worst and begins an investigation that unearths more questions than answers. Despite its serious subject, Allen has written a gripping and diversionary read. Fans will enjoy the surprising plot twists and turns. Kathleen Hughes
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
Early in her marriage, Grace Loring became the victim of her husband's sudden, unpredictable rages. Taking her infant daughter and a few belongings, Grace got into her car and fled the safety of her brother Gus's home in Vermont. Now Grace is a successful author. Devoted fans find support and comfort in her unflinchingly honest writing and regularly contact her via her Web site. Her daughter, Nicky, has thrived in her uncle's happy, yet unorthodox, home; Gus is the only father she has known and she adores him. And Grace has become a caregiver to her brother since the onset of a debilitating disease. Accustomed to abused women writing to ask for advice, Grace is sympathetic when she is contracted by a troubled young woman named Stephanie Baine. In the course of their e-mail correspondence, Stephanie reveals details of a nightmarish life: her terrifying abduction as a teenager and the complete lack of support from her parents; the psychological and escalating physical abuse she is now undergoing at the hands of her husband. Grace's advice is clear and to the point: Stephanie must do whatever is necessary to escape this madman. After several weeks of an intensive exchange, the e-mails abruptly stop, and Grace begins to fear the worst for Stephanie. Then the e-mails resume, and what Grace comes to learn casts doubt on everything she believed about the person she thought she knew. Who is Stephanie Baine? Has anything she's told Grace been the truth? Is she really a young woman in danger, or is something else -- something sinister, even deadly -- going on?

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Early in her marriage, Grace Loring became the victim of her husband's sudden, unpredictable rages. Taking her infant daughter and a few belongings, Grace got into her car and fled the safety of her brother Gus's home in Vermont.

Now Grace is a successful author. Devoted fans find support and comfort in her unflinchingly honest writing and regularly contact her via her Web site. Her daughter, Nicky, has thrived in her uncle's happy, yet unorthodox, home; Gus is the only father she has known and she adores him. And Grace has become a caregiver to her brother since the onset of a debilitating disease.

Accustomed to abused women writing to ask for advice, Grace is sympathetic when she is contracted by a troubled young woman named Stephanie Baine. In the course of their e-mail correspondence, Stephanie reveals details of a nightmarish life: her terrifying abduction as a teenager and the complete lack of support from her parents; the psychological and escalating physical abuse she is now undergoing at the hands of her husband. Grace's advice is clear and to the point: Stephanie must do whatever is necessary to escape this madman.

After several weeks of an intensive exchange, the e-mails abruptly stop, and Grace begins to fear the worst for Stephanie. Then the e-mails resume, and what Grace comes to learn casts doubt on everything she believed about the person she thought she knew. Who is Stephanie Baine? Has anything she's told Grace been the truth? Is she really a young woman in danger, or is something else — something sinister, even deadly — going on?

Author Biography:

New York Times bestselling author Charlotte Vale Allen worked (among other things) as a salesperson, a waitress, a secretary, an insurance broker and as an actress before turning to writing full-time with the publication of her first novel Love Life, in 1976.

Born in Toronto, Canada, Allen moved to the U.S. in 1966 and has lived in Connecticut since 1970. Her award-winning autobiography (and only nonfiction work), Daddy's Girl, is in its twenty-ninth paperback printing. Grace Notes is her thirty-sixth novel.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly