SIDNEY SHELDON

When somebody asks me who your writer is? Immediately Sidney Sheldon comes in my mind. When suspense and thriller comes in my mind, Sidney Sheldon comes in my mind. He is one of the finest writers for thrillers and suspense stories. Whenever, I read his books, his books make me read till the end. The books have suspense that makes me read till the end.

I do love his books. It was around 2006, my sister best friend gave his book named The Best Laid Plans (1997). I loved the book. While reading the book, I thought the writer was female because of two things made me think the writer was female. One was because of the name and secondly because the protagonist of the novels are female. After reading two, three novels of the writer than I googled about the writer and knew the writer was male. One thought came in my mind that how can male write or portray female character so nicely.

I have read almost his books which includes: The Naked Face (1970), A Stranger in the Mirror (1976), Master of the Game (1982), If Tomorrow Comes (1985), Nothing Lasts Forever (1995), Tell Me Your Dreams (1998) and Are You Afraid of the Dark? (2004).

BOOKS

THE NAKED FACE

The Naked Face is the first novel (1970) written by Sidney Sheldon. It was nominated by the Mystery Writers of America for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel by an American Author.

Dr. Judd Stevens, M.D., is a caring and successful Manhattan psychoanalyst who must face a horrific prospect; someone is trying to kill him. First, John Hanson, a patient trying to overcome his homosexuality, is murdered. Not long after, Carol Roberts, Stevens' secretary, is also found tortured to death. Two police officers, Andrew McGreavy and Frank Angeli, are quick to treat Stevens as the prime suspect, partly due to McGreavy's anger over Stevens' testimony in a previous case. Stevens is later run down by a car, and following his recovery, two men in dark try to kill him in his office.

To prove his innocence and track down the real killer, Stevens hires a private investigator by the name of Norman Z. Moody. He also suspects some of his patients: Harrison Burke (a homicidal paranoiac), Anne Blake (a mysterious patient with whom Stevens is in love) and Teri Washburn (a sex addict and former Hollywood actress). Influenced by Angeli (the one who is somewhat friendly and helpful to him), Stevens began to consider Moody as a suspect.

However, Moody dies but not before giving a hint on the killer: Don Vinton. Another murder is attempted on Stevens, but he outsmarts the attackers. McGreavy, along with his police force tries to catch Stevens but he escapes and eventually realises that Don Vinton, in Italian, means the Big Man, a title given to the leader of a criminal syndicate: La Cosa Nostra.

He contacts Angeli, who lures him to Anthony DeMarco (a capo of La Cosa Nostra and a megalomaniac), who is revealed to be Anne's husband. He tries to extract information about Anne's sessions with Stevens and forces him to convince Anne to go with her husband (DeMarco) to Europe. It is revealed that he killed Hanson (mistaking him for Stevens) and Carol (to extract information about Anne).

After a struggle at a factory, Stevens manages to kill DeMarco and is rescued by McGreavy.

A STRANGER IN THE MIRROR

A Stranger in the Mirror is a 1976 novel written by Sidney Sheldon. The novel is one of the earliest Sheldon's works, but contains the typical Sheldon fast-paced narration and several narrative techniques with the exception of a twist ending. The novel tells the life story of two fictitious Hollywood celebrities - Toby Temple and Jill Castle (roman à clef on Sheldon's acquaintances Groucho Marx and Erin Fleming) portray the emotional extremes of success and failure and how people inevitably become victims of time. It was adapted into a television film in 1993 starring Perry King, Lori Loughlin, Christopher Plummer, and Juliet Mills.

A retired captain recalls the cruise where he decided to retire, which involves the famous celebrity, Jill Castle. The book then goes back to the beginning of the lives of the two main characters: Jill and Toby Temple.

Toby's main influence growing up is his mother, who pushes him to always do better and leads him to believe he is destined for fame and greatness. After running away to Hollywood to avoid a shotgun marriage, his delusion of being naturally funny and charming is shattered when he struggles to start his career as a comedian. Eventually, after years of hardship, he becomes a successful star through the help of Clifton Lawrence, a celebrity producer, though has become an egomaniac who destroys the careers of anyone with the slightest fault against him, and has to have everyone around him dependent on him, including Lawrence, whom he forces to drop all his other celebrity clients.

Jill, born Josephine Czinski, leaves her hometown of Odessa, Texas for Hollywood after she learns that her boyfriend, the wealthy David Kenyon, is engaged to another woman, Cissy, the morning after he nearly proposed to Jill himself. In reality, David's mother and Cissy trick David into thinking it would be a temporary marriage to please his mother, but he fails to tell Jill about this. She discovers the difficulty of being an actress with no connections and, after being drugged into participating in a pornographic film, decides to start earning better roles in exchange for sexual favors. After a failed attempt at reuniting with David, who misses their rendezvous after Cissy attempts to kill herself, Jill returns to Hollywood and ends up working for the Toby Turner Show.

Toby is attracted to Jill, whose promiscuous reputation is unknown to him. They bond over their humble beginnings and Toby marries her despite Lawrence's warnings, aware of Jill's reputation. Jill manipulates Toby into destroying the careers of those who have used her in the past, and then ends Lawrence's career (since he refused her a meeting when she was an unknon) by becoming Toby's manager. Lawrence learns about Jill's porno film, but is unable to show Toby. 

Toby enjoys Jill's new role as his manager, seeing her resemblance to his mother, but suffers a stroke that leaves him paralyzed with an estimated few years left to live. Jill's determination to help him and his miraculous improvement earns public approval, making her more famous than Toby. She reconnects with David, now a divorcee, and while they agree to be friends, secretly loves him still. Toby relapses into another stroke, this time marring his appearance and paralyzing him completely, though this time is estimated to live for another twenty years. In frustration, she tells a paralyzed Toby she does not love him anymore, but as a result begins to have nightmares about his moving eyes. She decides to drown him and stage his death as an accident, and while she is not charged with murder, Lawrence does not believe her story.

Lawrence hears of Jill's low-profile wedding to David Kenyon and suspects her of murdering Toby to be with him. He follows them to their honeymoon cruise and forces David to watch Jill's pornographic film. David's racist history is revealed, and he beats up Lawrence. David leaves on a helicopter while Lawrence gloats about his victory to her. Jill, depressed, hallucinates and sees Toby's face in the water, and she jumps off the boat to be with him.

MASTER OF THE GAME

Master of the Game is a novel by Sidney Sheldon, first published in hardback format in 1982. Spanning four generations in the lives of the fictional McGregor/Blackwell family, the critically acclaimed novel spent four weeks at number one on the New York Times Best Seller List, and was later adapted into a 1984 television miniseries.

On August 4, 2009 (two years after Sheldon's death), William Morrow and Company released a sequel, Sidney Sheldon's Mistress of the Game, written by Tilly Bagshawe.

Kate Blackwell, matriarch of the Blackwell family and head of her father's multinational business empire, Kruger-Brent Ltd., gathers her family members at her estate in Dark Harbor, Maine following her ninetieth birthday celebration. She can see the ghosts of her past, but she refuses to join them until a member of the family is ready to take over her empire. The novel explains four generations of the empire's rise and Kate's dedication to the conglomerate.

Kate's father, Jamie McGregor leaves Scotland for Klipdrift, South Africa to find his fortune in the growing diamond trade of the 1860s. He is swindled and left for dead by merchant Salomon van der Merwe but is saved by Banda, van der Merwe's servant, and they steal a fortune in diamonds from van der Merwe to fund their vengeance against the man who mistreated them both. A now unrecognizable Jamie returns to Klipdrift under a new name and impregnates van der Merwe's daughter, Margaret. He announces his true identity and says he had repaid van der Merwe's "hospitality" with a present: McGregor seed in his daughter's belly. The story spreads through the town, shaming the very religious van der Merwe. Jamie helps the town thrive, and in the process gains the power to ruin van der Merwe financially and drives him to kill himself. Margaret gives birth to a son, and after Jamie continues to ignore them both she leaves the baby on his father's doorstep. Jamie grows to love his son and marries Margaret when she threatens to take the child to America. One night Jamie drunkenly mistakes his wife for his mistress, which results in Kate's birth. During the Bantu rebellion, Banda kidnaps Kate before rebels can take her, but Jamie Jr. is kidnapped and left to die in the desert. News of this causes Jamie to have a stroke, leaving him helpless in the care of Margaret, who runs Kruger-Brent with Jamie's right-hand man, David Blackwell. While captured during the Boer War, Kate realizes the need for power so she will never feel helpless again.

Kate grows up desperately in love with David, vowing to marry him one day. After her mother's death, she becomes serious about running the company and goes to business school. Upon her return from a trip to America she learns of David's engagement to a woman whose family wants him to leave Kruger-Brent and run their company. Kate manipulates David into breaking off his engagement and eventually they marry. Though David is against manufacturung weapons during World War I, Kate begins to do so after David enlists, causing tension in their marriage when he returns. She becomes pregnant with his child, though she also begins to realize her obsession with Kruger-Brent and wonders if the company is becoming more important to her than her marriage. David is killed in an explosion in one of the company's mines, causing Kate to prematurely give birth to Anthony "Tony" Blackwell.

Kate makes Kruger-Brent a global success, though her demanding nature causes Tony to stutter in her presence. Tony opts for an art career and after World War II goes to an art school in France. He shows promise, but Kate pays a critic to negatively criticize Tony's work, leading him to give up his art and join Kruger-Brent. While in Paris he dated a model named Dominique but later discovers she was paid by his mother to spy on him, and he gains the courage to cut Kate out of his life. Kate uses his hatred of her to manipulate him into marrying Marianne Hoffman so Kate can obtain the Hoffman electronics empire as well as grandchildren to inherit the company. Despite warnings from Marianne's doctor about her health, Kate persuades her to have children, and she dies giving birth to twins. Tony learns of how his mother persuaded Marianne to carry out the pregnancy at the same time that Dominique reveals his mother was responsible for the end of his art career. Tony goes insane and tries to kill Kate to "save her" from the company. He is lobotomized and sent to an asylum, while Kate takes care of both the company and her granddaughters, Eve and Alexandra.

Eve, the older twin, is manipulative and evil, and despises Alexandra, a trusting and sweet girl. Eve secretly attempts to kill Alexandra several times during their childhood. Kate decides to name Eve heir to Kruger-Brent but disinherits her when she discovers Eve's true nature. Eve meets George Mellis, who like her has been disinherited by his rich family, and they plot to have George marry Alexandra and kill her, leaving George with Alexandra's fortune while Kate will have no option but to take Eve back to run the company. Eve manages to help George marry Alexandra, but she taunts him to the point that he nearly beats her to death. A talented surgeon, Keith Webster, fixes her face, and Kate reconciles with Eve and plans to put her back in her will. Eve decides she no longer needs George and decides to get rid of him. She intercepts Alexandra and prevents her rendezvous with George. Eve then pretends to be Alexandra and kills him. The police find his body and build a case against Eve. Keith realizes the truth when Dr. John Harley, the family's doctor whom Eve visited under the guise of a suicidal Alexandra, says he was able to tell the twins apart because of Eve's facial scar from her assault though Keith knows he left no scars on Eve's face and has a post surgical photo to prove it. Keith threatens to show the photo to the police if Eve doesn't marry him, and although she complies she cheats on him openly with a younger man. Keith refuses to testify at the coroner's inquest and Kate gives Eve an alibi, believing Eve murdered George but thinking she will punish Eve in her own way. Before she can do so, Keith deliberately destroys Eve's face during a laugh line removal procedure, making Eve devoted to Keith in fear that he will leave her alone with her ugliness. Kate considers this punishment enough. Alexandra marries George's psychiatrist, Dr. Peter Templeton, and they have a son named Robert.

Back in the present, Robert, now eight, is a classical pianist prodigy. Kate tries to meddle with Robert's future, but is rebuffed by Peter and Alexandra who say Robert will choose his own life and won't be forced to take over Kruger-Brent. Kate relents, saying she would never interfere in anyone's life choices. She then offers to introduce young Robert to a renowned musician as she once offered to help with Tony's art career.

IF TOMORROW COMES

If Tomorrow Comes is a 1985 crime fiction novel by American author Sidney Sheldon. It is a story portraying an ordinary woman who is framed by the Mafia, her subsequent quest for vengeance towards them and her later life as a con artist. The novel was adapted into a three-part TV miniseries with the same name in 1986, starring Madolyn Smith and Tom Berenger.

Tracy is a successful bank-worker in Philadelphia, engaged to a wealthy heir, whose child she is carrying. Then her mother commits suicide, after being scammed by the New Orleans Mafia and left in debt. Tracy gets a gun to frighten the scammer, Joe Romano, into admitting her mother’s innocence, but he tries to rape her and is wounded in the struggle. Her attorney convinces her that she will get a much shorter sentence if she pleads guilty, but the judge sentences her to fifteen years, and she realises that the judge and the attorney are both working for Romano’s boss, mafia don Orsatti. As she goes to jail, her employer and her fiancé abandon her and the unborn child, which she miscarries under the horrendous abuse she suffers from other prisoners. Tracy now decides to revenge herself on all the men who have ruined her life. Granted an early parole, she uses her banking knowledge to divert large sums into Romano’s account, making it look as though he was planning to skip the country, and Orsatti kills him for his apparent betrayal. Then she gets the boyfriend of one of her jail-mates to plant evidence in the attorney’s home, making it look as though he was cheating Orsatti at cards, and Orsatti kills him too. While the judge is in Russia, she sends him coded letters that implicate him as a spy, and he is sentenced to ten years hard labor. She stalks her ex-fiance and his new wife, but decides that they look so bored and unhappy with each other that no further punishment is needed.

With a criminal record, however, her career is over, and she reluctantly slips into crime, presently finding that she enjoys stealing, especially from those who deserve to be stolen from. In the course of a colourful crime spree all over Europe, she falls in love with one of her co-conspirators, and they plan to take their winnings and live the law-abiding life in Brazil. But on the plane, she finds herself sitting next to a wealthy top criminal Maximilian, who shows a strong interest in her, and we are left wondering if she will try to steal from him too.

NOTHING LASTS FOREVER

Nothing Lasts Forever is a 1994 novel by Sidney Sheldon.

This medical thriller tells the story of three female doctors trying to prove themselves in a profession dominated by men. Each of them has their own story, and each of their tales are well connected and intertwined with each other. But suddenly there is chaos, one dies, another is about to get the hospital shut down, and the third faces the death penalty for murder.

The story was turned into a miniseries, from the executive producer David Gerber.

TELL ME YOUR DREAMS

The main characters of the book are Ashley Patterson, an introverted workaholic, her co-workers, Toni Prescott, an outgoing singer and dancer, and shy artist Alette Peters and Ashley's father, Dr. Steven Patterson.

The three women do not get along very well, because of their dissimilar natures. Toni and Alette generally maintain a friendship, with Alette a calming influence, but Toni dislikes Ashley and criticizes her harshly. All three have issues with their mothers having told them they'd never amount to anything.

Ashley fears that somebody is following her. She finds her house lights turned on when she returns from work, her personal effects in disarray, and someone has written "You will die" on her mirror with a lipstick. She thinks someone's broken into her house. She requests a police escort, but the next morning, the police officer assigned to this duty is found dead in her apartment. Two other murders have already taken place, with an identical pattern. All the murdered men had been castrated and were having sex before being murdered. Evidence points to the same woman being involved in all three cases. When a gift from one of the murdered men to Toni is found among Ashley's things, she is identified as the killer and arrested. At this point, it is revealed that the three women are three selves of a woman suffering from multiple personality disorder.

Ashley's father persuades an attorney friend, David Singer to represent Ashley. The second half of the novel deals with the trial, complete with endless squabbling between opposing psychiatrists as to whether or not MPD is real. Finally when David introduces Toni, the violent alter of Ashley, the court is convinced that Ashley is innocent. Ashley is committed to an insane asylum and in the course of therapy is introduced to her two "alters" and relives the horrific events that shattered her mind. She was sexually abused during her childhood, and this made her develop a strong hatred towards men.
 

In the asylum, Ashley is treated for MPD by Dr. Gilbert and Dr. Otto Lewis. Gilbert falls for her and during her crisis, he too feels her pain and wants to comfort her. It is revealed that her father, Dr. Steven was the one who sexually abused her, causing her to develop Dissociative Identity Disorder resulting in the creation of the alter Toni, and becomes a thing of her mother's detest. When they are living in Italy during her teenage years, she is once again assaulted by her father, leading to the creation of Alette. The structuring of both the alters is very interesting. The first alter represents her struggle and fear as a helpless child without sexual maturity, and (Toni) develops into a protective one and becomes murderous when encountered with similar conditions. While the second alter (Alette) represents her feeling of shame and pain of being breached, thus developing into a source of console exhibiting warmth and motherly love who has good rapport with Ashley.

However, Toni is enraged when she learns that the woman her father is about to marry has a three-year-old daughter and is afraid that the girl would suffer the same fate she had. Doctor Gilbert drains anger out of Toni by showing the news everyday, making Toni softer with each passing day.

This softer side of Toni is only a front to show Doctor Gilbert she has finally accepted everything so she and Alette can get out of the asylum to kill her father, who is staying in The Hamptons for Christmas. Soon, Doctor Gilbert releases her from the asylum as he believes she is cured.

In the end, Ashley is shown to be traveling on a train to The Hamptons, where her father is staying, when Toni suddenly shows up to kill him.

ARE YOU AFRAID OF DARK?

In four cities across the world, four people die violently and mysteriously. The dead share a single crucial link: each was connected to an all-powerful environmental think tank. Two of the victims' widows—accomplished painter Diane Stevens and international supermodel Kelly Harris—may hold the key to their husbands' demise. Terrified for their lives, suspicious of each other, and armed only with their own wits and guile, they must join forces in a nightmare cycle of they loved...and about an awesome conspiracy whose ultimate target is as big as the earth and as close as the air we breathe.

CONCLUSION

Sidney Sheldon is a surprisingly talented writer, and the plot twists are many and dramatic. You might throw your copy against a wall in frustration over a character's actions. You will definitely lose sleep when you obsessively stay up all night reading "just one more chapter..." It's just addicting. A definite beach book, but not so trashy that you'd feel guilty reading it in public. In fact, you might even read it more than once.

Most of the stories are passion, manipulated, hardships and betrayal. There are logic holes and no apparent reason why the characters of the plot behave in a irrational way, but the pace with the story traveled kept me hooked.

Most of his books are chilling. The books have the atmosphere of suspense and tense. The writer usually have ingredients of such as sex, deception, betrayal, dark secrets, ulterior motives, greed, opportunism have been skillfully used. The author portrayed the dark psyche of human beings. If there are perverts hiding behind a facade of respectability then there are some very decent people as well.

The mystery, the suspense, the tension - all these make his novels a very engrossing read. The author has thrown about a few clues here and there. Furthermore, his books are of psychological thriller. In conclusion, the ending makes the each book even more chilling and terrifying.

REFERENCES

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Stranger_in_the_Mirror

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_of_the_Game_(novel)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_Tomorrow_Comes_(novel)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing_Lasts_Forever_(Sheldon_novel)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Are_You_Afraid_of_the_Dark%3F_(novel)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tell_Me_Your_Dreams