The Gift, Novel

Hollywood legend and nationally bestselling author Kirk Douglas

now solidifies his role as writer with a sizzling tale of

romance, passion, and suspense that equals the best of Sidney Sheldon. The

Gift weaves an intricate tale about an orphaned American heiress and a

tragically injured young Portuguese bullfighter. LG Alternate.

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From Publisher's Weekly:

The rough charm and heat that fueled Dance with the Devil are largely

missing from Douglas's second novel, which reels through more melodramatic

tragedies than the Book of Job. Softhearted, emotionally fragile Patricia

Dennison, orphaned heiress to the Stoneham fortune, divides her life

between trips to a Swiss sanitorium, where she is ensconced in the suicide

ward, and the farm where she pensions off broken-down horses, cultivates a

lush rose garden (with ladybugs, not pesticides) and moons after a

handsome, seemingly heroic doctor. Enter arrogant Miguel Cardiga, a

Portuguese bullfighter whose career is sidelined by a rogue bull's deadly

horns. Son of a famed equestrian, Miguel schools Patricia in dressage and

love's thrust and parry. Meantime, Stoneham Group trustees plot to declare

Patricia incompetent and engineer a series of accidents designed to drive

her over the edge. Although Douglas has proven himself a capable

storyteller, he soaks this sticky-sweet romance in a rain of cliches and

predictably cyclical lovers' spats. Flashes of wry humor can't salvage

pasteboard characters and a creaky plot. Major ad/promo; author tour.

(Sept.) -Publisher's Weekly

From Library Journal:

Such trite plot elements as a virile Latin bullfighter, a beautiful

orphaned heiress, and Lusitano stallions pretty much explain this formulaic

romance. Movie star-turned-novelist Douglas ( Dance with the Devil ,

Random, 1990) also throws in evil trustees, AIDS, Palestinian terrorists,

glimpses of Lisbon and New York, amputees, and insanely jealous mistresses

in this tale about a past murder that brings together the unlikely

protagonists. Recommended for those readers not yet tired of the

vicissitudes of the weird and wealthy. Literary Guild alternate; previewed

in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/92.-- Lynn Thompson, Ozark Regional Lib., Ironton,

Mo. -Library Journal