Bloodline

• This wonderful thriller is the story of Elizabeth Roffe, whose father has just died (or was he murdered?), leaving her heiress to a multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical maker. She takes over the reins of the company, with the help of Rhys Williams, a handsome but mysterious self-made man. Elizabeth's four quirky cousins and co-owners of the company each have shady pasts and need money, badly. They are pressuring her to allow the company to go public; she refuses, and becomes the target of an unknown assassin.
  
  This is a book you will not be able to put down. The story is full of fascinating flashbacks, detailing the often bizarre lives of all the Roffes: Alec from London, Helene from Paris, Anna from Berlin, and Ivo from Rome. Each one has a reason to want Elizabeth out of the way, and as the attempts on her life increase, the tension mounts until the killer is revealed in a truly frightening conclusion. Highly recommended for Sidney Sheldon fans and everyone who enjoys fast-paced stories full of action and memorable characters. This book was made into an all-star movie with Audrey Hepburn, Omar Sharif, and James Mason.
  

• Another fantastic, mind-gripping read, holding its audience from page one. Bloodline spins the tale of a family-run pharmaceutical conglomerate. Roffe and Sons has been passed down to the heirs of Samuel Roffe's family, Sam Roffe, the only male descendant and holder of the controlling interest of the company, Anna Roffe married to Walther Gassner, Ivo Palazzi, married to Simonetta Roffe, Charles Martel married to Helene Roffe and Sir Alec Nichols' mother had been a Roffe. Samuel Roffe, founder of the company, had decided from the beginning that his company never go public.
  
  His theory, "Never let a friendly fox into your hen house. One day he's going to get hungry." When Sam Roffe (an experienced climber) dies in a mysterious mountain climbing accident, Elizabeth inherits his controlling interest in the company. Suddenly, life-threatening events begin to happen to her as she holds onto her great-great grandfather's wishes after finding a book telling the story of Samuel Roffe's life and the tense, emotional and physical struggle he endured to build the company from the ground up.
  
  In her great-great grandfather's memory and approach, she is determined to keep the company private and uncover the person responsible for the evil doings within the upper echelon (that being one of four of her cousins) or possibly her father's right-hand man, Rhys Williams.
  
  Rhys, not being a member of the family, was brought into the company by Elizabeth's father, however, unless he married a Roffe, in this case, Elizabeth (since she was the only female left), would be unable to sit on the Board of Directors. Williams was always kind to Liz (is it merely business or personal?) who grew up without a father's presence in her life (just the comforts of his money). Liz felt, even though she harbored strong feelings for Rhys, she could not afford to trust him or anyone until she uncovered the person out to destroy all that Samuel Roffe had built.
  
  Each cousin has their own issues; Anna Roffe's husband is out to destroy their children, Ivo Palazzi is leading a double life with two families, Charles is being lead around by Helene as a boy toy, Sir Alec has married Vivian, a wild, crazy party girl and Rhys has worked long and hard his adult life for Sam without the benefit of even a share of stock in the multimillion dollar business. Each one has their own agenda for forcing first Sam and now Elizabeth to have the company go public and thereby attaining the financial means to destroy the "fly in the ointment" of their respective lives.
  

• Definatly Sheldon's jewel of a crown. I finished it in 6 hours, I couldn't stop reading.

• I thought his was a typically excellent Sheldon book. Although the education I received on the pharmaceutical industry was helpful, I did manage to skim through those passages a few times. I liked the strength of the protagonist character and was pleased to see that a decent man was depicted in the novel who was kind and made her feel as is she counted as a human being. All in al, the book was interesting.