Savannah, it turns out, is catatonic, and before the suicide attempt had completely assumed the identity of a dead friend-the implication being that she couldn't stand being a Wingo anymore.

When he hears that his fierce, beautiful twin sister Savannah, a well-known New York poet, has once again attempted suicide, he escapes his present emasculation by flying north to meet Savannah's comely psychiatrist, Susan Lowenstein.

Tom Wingo is an unemployed South Carolinian football coach whose internist wife is having an affair with a pompous cardiac man. Picoult, who is so often an inventive and compelling storyteller, relies here on convention and sentimentality.Ī flabby, fervid melodrama of a high-strung Southern family from Conroy ( The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline), whose penchant for overwriting once again obscures a genuine talent. Afraid she’ll be charged with Jason’s murder, Trixie runs away to the Alaskan Eskimo village where Daniel was raised (and tormented as the only white boy), forcing Daniel to confront his past, save his daughter, save his marriage and make everything okay in the universe, as every superhero should.Īs a third-act whodunit-the culprit is an easy guess-the story fails. She’s saved in time, but soon after her recovery, Jason is found dead, and it’s beginning to look like Trixie killed him. Picoult usually infuses a bit of suspense into her dramas, and this effort is no different as Trixie’s testimony comes into question-is Trixie just out for revenge on the boyfriend who dumped her? As the DA and detective try to build a rape case, Trixie becomes ostracized at school, continues to self-mutilate and then finally attempts suicide. As his alter ego tours the circles of hell with Virgil, Daniel’s family begins to unravel: On the night that Trixie is raped by her boyfriend, Daniel discovers Laura has been having an affair with a student. Inspired by his wife’s work, Daniel’s hero Duncan/Wildclaw descends into hell in search of his kidnapped daughter (sections of the comic book, illustrated by Dustin Weaver, appear at the end of each chapter). To all outward appearances, the family Stone seems a happy trio: Mother Laura teaches Dante at the local university her 14-year-old Trixie is popular, dating the town’s high school hockey hero Jason Underhill and Daniel, a stay-at-home dad, has finally hit it big with the debut of his own comic book, The Tenth Circle. Picoult ( Vanishing Act, 2005, etc.) fumbles in this 13th novel of, predictably, a family in crisis.

The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult