When She Was Bad

Dan Stark finds himself falling under the deadly spell of an utterly amoral yet absolutely fascinating temptress, who promises ecstasy but delivers only destruction, forcing Dan to make difficult, possibly fatal, decisions

One man's obsession with a world-class femme fatale powers this fast-running but unreliable thriller by the author of In the Forest of the Night . Local reporter Dan Stark meets the woman of his dreams--and nightmares--when shipwreck survivor Christine Terry is brought ashore to the Florida Keys. Narrator Dan, an impetuous sort, falls hard for both the self-possessed beauty and her tale of a fortune in emeralds that sank with the sailboat that was ferrying her from Colombia to Miami. Quitting his job, Dan sails with Christine to recover the gems, only to see his fantasy voyage of sun and sex shattered when, the emeralds found, Christine maroons him on a reef, from which he's rescued by a passing ship. Seven years later, Dan, still under Christine's spell despite realizing that she killed the sailboat's owner and nearly did him in, too, tracks her to Aspen, where she's the cocaine kingpin of high ski society. Disguised as a crude but savvy drug lord, he deals his way to Christine in order to extract a brutal revenge, a tit-for-tat pattern that continues over the years, with vengeance pursued by shooting, arson, fraud and attempted drowning. Christine usually gets the upper hand, but Dan, whose mutation from victim to avenger is unconvincing, always comes back for more, like a punch-drunk palooka. Throughout, Faust's prose is as smooth and bright as a sunlit mirror. At first, the pair's wicked tanglings grip, but by novel's end the combat seems more like slapstick than suspense, a dead-end for Faust's prodigious, if here misdirected, talent.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Indiana Jones meets the Dragon Lady in this knockabout tale of rolling stone Dan Stark and his now-and-then, 20-year adventures with the evil, evil Chantal d`Auberon. It's 1972, and Stark's a reporter for the Florida Key Times who's sent out to interview Christine Terry, survivor of a Caribbean yacht wreck that left her husband dead and her drifting on a lifeboat for 19 days. But there were stolen emeralds aboard that yacht, she whispers to him, and together they slip off to retrieve them. Stark thinks it's all too easy, and he's right: Christine isn't Christine, of course, but Chantal, and abandoning Stark while she runs off with the swag is only Act One of a long- running matinee serial. Years pass before Stark, disguised as a coke dealer, gets his chance for revenge. And no sooner has he gotten it than Chantal's after him again, nearly killing him before getting sent up on drug charges that leave her in prison for more short years (a few paragraphs) before she's ready for still another crack at Stark, now run through a successful business and ripe for further treachery. A stint as a beach bum, a new career as a campground owner and sometime author--Chantal (next seen as the Comtesse de Villiers, the queen bee of Puerto Vallarta) can ruin Stark and leave him for dead, but she can't leave any marks; and in the meantime (by now it's 1990), he's made contact with Chantal's daughter Gabrielle, who may or may not be his daughter too. Following in the footsteps of James M. Cain but without Cain's bile, Faust (In the Forest of the Night, 1993) makes Stark's whole life a pleasant afternoon at the Bijou. As for Chantal, ``she was a viper.'' ($75,000 ad/promo) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Dan Stark is a reporter for a small Florida Keys newspaper. One day, a woman is rescued from a raft after spending 19 days on the open sea following a yachting mishap. Stark loses his job and decides to help her find the emeralds that she was forced to abandon when the yacht sank. Thus begins a tale of love and hate, obsession and vengeance, and trust and betrayal. Faust ( In the Forest of the Night , LJ 2/15/93) leads the reader into the machinations of two people who shoot each other, steal from each other, and lie to each other. The one thing they cannot do, though, is forget each other. Told in simple, unembellished prose, the story grips and entices, eventually leading to a smashing denouement. For most popular collections.
- Jo Ann Vicarel, Cleveland Heights-University Heights P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

If you met someone rescued after two weeks spent on a life raft who then escapes mysteriously from the hospital, you'd probably think twice before getting involved with them. Not Dan Stark. He acknowledges his foolhardiness but is drawn to Christine Terry, who is absolutely nothing she pretends to be. Faust's latest boasts a Jackie Collins-ish title and a main character--Stark--who may be the most glib but likable smart-ass in years. Stark's obsession with Christine leads him down many paths. He's drawn by revenge after she abandons him, and, like her, he changes himself to fit the situations he meets in pursuit of her. He cares about her and gives her another chance before she tricks him again. Finally, he discovers a much more personal reason for tracking her down. Faust has been compared to Hemingway, and Stark's outdoorsy yet refined man-of-the-world persona is Papa-like. So is Faust's spartan writing style, to which you must pay attention or else miss several years' passing in a single line. What's best here, though, are likable Stark and disingenuous Christine both doing surprising things--good and bad--and the pleasure of being able to predict their final confontation while having no earthly idea how it will be resolved. Joe Collins