Shute (Free Fall
) tackles a current headline—identity theft—in her well-researched and absorbing fourth novel. Protagonist Vera de Sica is a risk-averse, single, 38-year-old ESL instructor in New York whose respectable life has begun to bore her. Antagonist Charlene Cummins is a 38-year-old Southern California cosmetics saleswoman with an abusive con-man boyfriend, a bad credit rating and a penchant for living on the edge. The two women come together when Charlene's boyfriend, Howard, steals Vera's rental car (Vera was in L.A. for a conference), finding papers in it that contain enough information to make Vera vulnerable. Charlene quickly maxes out Vera's credit cards, applies for more, draws cash advances and opens bank accounts, while back in Manhattan, Vera's speed control is apparently set to sleepwalk: before she realizes it, her credit house-of-cards has all but fallen in on itself. By then her life has become such a maze of bad checks and overdue balances that she's overwhelmed trying to bring her financial alter ego to justice. The emotionally bankrupt Charlene starts pretending she really is Vera de Sica, adopting not just Vera's finances but creating a fantasy personal life for her as well. Shute mostly skims over interesting themes of self and identity in favor of a solid, quick-moving plot. Agent, Betsy Lerner
. (Aug.)
