GOTCHA! – Fern Michaels
The Sisterhood , Book 21
Zebra (Paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-4201-2148-3
July 2013
Contemporary Fiction

Rosemount, Alabama

Manhattan attorneys Mace Carlisle and Oliver Goldfeld, both sixty, have been fast friends forever, but three years ago, Mace made a bad mistake by marrying his masseuse. He enlists Oliver's help in ridding himself of the gold digger and her embezzling son. To avoid the worst of the flak, Mace leaves town and heads south posing as Oliver Goldfeld. On his way out, he adopts a companion, a shelter dog named Lola. He lets Lola choose their destination, and she puts her paw over Alabama on the map. He stops in a town called Rosemount and happens to rent the guest house on the property of a woman named Julie Wyatt.

Julie Wyatt hosts a show on the Food Network—now on hiatus. She bore five children: twin girls, twin boys, and another son. Larry was her youngest and beloved by all. He married and produced a daughter, Olivia, and Olivia is now at the center of Julie's mind. Olivia's mother died, and Larry passed a few years later. Olivia now lives with a greedy, selfish stepmother and her mooching boyfriend in the house bequeathed to Olivia, and they squeeze all they can from her trust and social security. Julie once again tries to contact the vigilantes known as the Sisterhood to help her rescue Olivia and wreak vengeance on the villainous pair.

It's August in McLean, Virginia, and Myra Rutledge receives a moving letter from a woman in Alabama. She discusses it with Annie de Silva, one of her cohorts in the Sisterhood, and they agree they must help her. Unable to reach Julie because of a storm in her area, the two decide to go to her immediately.

I feel rather inadequate reviewing GOTCHA! because I never read any of the twenty preceding books. I believe there were seven original members of the Sisterhood (don't hold me to that) whose aims were to right as many of the world's wrongs as they could. If the victims gain revenge in the process, all the better. In the years of their activities, they've gained many allies, including “the boys.”

GOTCHA! includes much fun and many tender moments of family love and warm friendships—I love the amazing dogs. There's also a lovely touch of the supernatural. What I wasn't prepared for, however, comes late in the book, and though there is a satisfying ending, there are some shocking moments getting there.

I imagine that fans of this series will be very pleased at getting another episode when it supposedly finished with twenty. I'm not sure, however, that this last book is the place to start. If you are intrigued at all, you might get an earlier title to start with. The first book, HIDE AND SEEK, is available in a digital edition at a reasonable price.

Jane Bowers