Looking For Leo - Softcover

A busy, emotional sixth novel by Nagy (A House in the Hamptons, etc.) that does battle with the same theme as Olivia Goldsmith's The First Wives Club, takes it a little further and deeper, but still gets tripped up in its ridiculous plot. That theme is a great starting point, though--women with their hatchets drawn, doing war dances around the men who've wronged them. Only in this case, five women go after the same man, Leo Lampi, who dumped them all in the past 40 years or so. As wife number three, Lindy Segal, says, ``We're talking Henry the Eighth here.'' However, Lindy needs the skunk now because Tess, the daughter she had by him, has leukemia and must have a bone-marrow transplant ASAP. And Leo's the only one around with the right stuff--or so we're asked to believe. To track him down, Lindy enlists: her best friend, Leo's second wife, Willa; lucky lady number four, a Miami chanteuse named Bee Bee Day; a surprise debut spouse in Washington, D.C.; and, after a trip to Jakarta, where the girls discover the alias that Leo's using, his current main squeeze, pregnant Rennie, living on the Caribbean island of Ancolla. When Leo wakes up in an Ancollan hospital after surviving an explosion (set by yet another dumped lover), imagine how he feels to find himself surrounded by his suddenly reconstituted harem! And, after all this, Nagy's not even winded. Still to come are: Leo reconfirming his sexual prowess; a hurricane; an airplane crash; little Tess's salvation, plus a tragedy it would be churlish to reveal. As usual, Nagy is smart-alecky-funny and compassionate, but her plot is on uppers--which is what keeps this novel from appealing on all levels. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Despite imaginatively drawn characters and wickedly witty scenarios, Nagy's ( A House in the Hamptons ) story of female bonding, and the irresistible blond stud who prompts it, never builds up enough tension to fully engage the reader. Childhood friends Lindy Lampi and Willa Snow have not spoken to each other in 10 years, since Willa's ex-husband Leo--by then Lindy's husband--ran off. However, when brassy Lindy learns that her and Leo's daughter has leukemia, and that Leo may be the ony suitable bone mar row donor, she swallows her pride and calls WASPY Willa to ask of Leo's whereabouts. Willa agrees to help find him. Together, the two begin an odyssey to locate the irresponsible, utterly masculine Leo. Their quest yields two more of Leo's ex-wives, news of his haunts in Hong Kong and a lush tropical island where his pregnant current girlfriend resides. Essentially, this is a book about lust, meaningful relationships and victims who lack nurturing, attentive mother figures. Leo's rugged charm and seductiveness are adroitly portrayed, as are the warm friendships that develop among his abandoned lovers. Still, an unclear sense of time's progression during the search and many improbable situations and characters--for example, a seldom-seen ex-wife of Leo's with convenient CIA connections in Washington, D.C., and a revenge-minded voodoo priestness out to destroy Leo for luring her with his je ne sais quoi --contribute to an unfulfilling plot. Author tour.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.