The Sky is Falling (novel)

Infobox Book
name = The Sky Is Falling
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Sidney Sheldon
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Crime novel
publisher = Warner Books
pub_date = 2001
english_pub_date =
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 416 pp (hardback edition)
isbn = ISBN 0-446-61017-8
preceded_by = Tell Me Your Dreams
followed_by = Are You Afraid Of The Dark?

"The Sky Is Falling" is a 2001 novel by Sidney Sheldon.

Plot summary

The main character to this book is Dana Evans, an anchorwoman for the press, who was also featured, though not as a main character, in another of Sidney Sheldon's book, The Best Laid Plans.

The story starts off with a prologue, a mysterious auction that involves a huge amount of money. Dana Evans had just came back from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. She is rushing to a meeting with the last member of the Winthrop family, Gary Winthrop. The story starts to get complicated when, a few hours after the interview with Dana, Gary Winthrop was shot and killed by some thieves who were, supposedly, stealing some paintings. Although most viewed this tragic row of events as accidents, the rest of the Winthrop family were killed in a series of suspicious "accidents" a few months beforehand, Dana was the exception. Taylor and Madeline Winthrop, Gary's parents, perished in a fire that burnt down their house, Paul Winthrop died when his car drove off a cliff, and Julie Winthrop died in a skiing accident. Dana couldn't believe that accidents had wiped out one of the most prominent families in the world. She began to investigate, delving deeper and deeper into the family's secrets.

Meanwhile, Kemal, the crippled boy (he only has one arm) Dana found in Sarajevo, caused trouble and launched into fights at school, because some bullies, mainly a boy named Ricky Underwood, kept insulting Dana. Dana was called to school a couple of times to manage Kemal. Kemal was finally expelled after he hospitalized his tormentor, Ricky.

Jeff Connors, Dana's fiance, is also occupied, looking after Rachel Stevens, his ex-wife, who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. Rachel is a model, one of the highest paid in the world, and was Jeff's wife for 4 years. Due to Dana's investigations, and him taking care of Rachel, they postponed their wedding to a later date.

Dana couldn't find anything remotely suspicious about the Winthrop family and was on the verge of giving up when she unexpectedly stumbled upon a case against Taylor Winthrop, while searching the internet for apartments for her, Jeff and Kemal. The case was filed by Joan Sinisi and was later dropped for some mysterious reason. Dana soon found out that Taylor Winthrop paid a huge settlement for the case to be dismissed. To Dana's astonishment, Joan refused to talk about the case, and asked her to leave. When Dana finally persuaded Joan to tell her, Joan "accidentally" fell down from her balcony and died. Her death was ruled out as an accident, even though its impossible for her to fall out of her balcony accidentally, due to a four foot wall preventing it. The maid taking care of Joan left after the "accident", to visit her family.

As she, determined despite the dangers, followed her leads, Dana befriended Roger Hudson was a former senate leader and billionaire who had some strange connection to Taylor Winthrop, and his wife, Pamela Hudson. They helped Dana a lot on her investigation, although Roger Hudson was very uncomfortable when Dana started talking about Taylor Winthrops. Dana became friends with the couple when Kemal broke an extremely expensive vase, she'd been forced to take Kemal with her when he got into major trouble at school, and the Hudsons told her not to worry.

She also made an enemy of General Victor Booster, head of the FRA, when she interviewed him. He screamed himself hoarse, insulting the media and told her to leave before she even got ten words out. Booster's aide, Jack Stone, became her friend when he helped her out, by warning her off Booster's abruptness and anger towards the media.

References

* [http://www.twbookmark.com/features/sidneysheldon/shelf.html SidneySheldon.com Bookshelf]