Book Review: Paying the Price

Reviewed By: Cheryl - RAM

Paying the Price     Amazon US TPB Amazon Canada TPB
Madge Walls
Class/Genre:   Fiction
Dialogue Publishing, 2005

Laura has achieved a hard-won equilibrium following the devastating disappearance of her daughter and an unwanted divorce. She has a tiny condo of her own, an achievement in Hawaii where housing prices are so high, two sons who are on their own and doing well, and a career in real estate that provides thrills - and, usually, enough money to pay her bills and pay off some of her debt to the detective who failed to find her daughter.

Then her best clients get involved in a 'for sale by owner' deal from Hell for a house that they absolutely must have - and her daughter calls from the airport, penniless and pregnant.

'Paying the Price' is not a classic mystery novel, but rather an exploration of character and relationships. The story exposes the difficulties of relationships - and demonstrates that Somerset Maugham's "There's always one who loves and one who lets himself be loved" applies to more than one kind of relationship. Family relationships are often imagined as being reciprocal; the opposite of this saying. But in fact, even the most primal relationship of all, the mother-child bond, which we want to believe is naturally and effortlessly perfect, is human and therefore necessarily imperfect - sometimes in excruciatingly painful ways. Moreover, most people, and especially most mothers, want desperately to maintain family relationships, even with those relatives with severe problems and egregious behaviour which would rapidly result in the elimination of a friend or neighbour from one's life. Laura's relationships are portrayed with a painful realism.

The connection between the two halves of the story - Laura's family and professional lives - is perhaps a little improbable, but not sufficiently so to affect suspension of disbelief.

The excellent characterization and honest handling of difficult personal and business moral dilemmas set this book apart and make it a very rewarding story to read.

Cheryl - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Cheryl - RAM