The Turning Point by Francis Ray
St. Martin's Press - April 2001
ISBN: 0312978626 - Paperback
General Fiction

Reviewed by Alvin Romer, MyShelf.Com
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Lilly Crawford, the main character in Francis Ray's latest novel, The Turning Point, endures long standing suffering, despair, and frustration in and out of a marriage that's going nowhere fast. Dealing with abuse at the hands of an uncaring husband, she decides to leave him, looking for a new lease on life. Trials and tribulation abound, but she inexplicably meets Adam Wakefield, a well-to-do San Francisco physician now living in seclusion on a Louisiana estate. His bailiwick and nemesis is his blindness and the psychoanalysis that has become burdensome, sinking him to the lower bowels of depression.

Can Lilly find happiness and contentment with Adam? Is Lilly the ray of hope that Adam has been searching for? It is only when the two of them are firmly ensconced in each other's psyche that the story really takes off. The Turning Point is told through tangled events of abuse, mistrust, fragile egos, and shattered lives...and is buoyed by the fact that two people find security in each other's heart and character.

Ms. Ray skillfully sets the story amid two entities that are both contrast and congruent to each other -- pain and joy. With an intense plot and vibrant characterization, this work is a satisfying read and likely to create a demand for more of her work.