Judith Henry Wall, The Surrogate

The Surrogate

Judith Henry Wall

Simon & Schuster, May 2006, $13.00

ISBN: 0743258517

Twenty-one year old Jamie Long is deep in debt having spent a fortune caring for her late grandmother, and has no one to turn to for help as she is estranged from her only living relative, her older avaricious half-sister Ginger. However, she thinks she has the answer to her financial woes if she can get the assignment. Nearing fifty, televangelist Amanda Hartmann offers $100,000 down and income for life to bear her child in secrecy. The sperm donor is Amanda's current husband and personal trainer Toby. Jamie applies and is considered acceptable for the artificial insemination, though this requires her to remain hidden at the Hartmann ranch in the isolated Texas Panhandle.

Amanda's brother Gus, head of their empire oil-evangelical empire accepts the ruse to fool their devotees with a miracle child, though the sperm comes from Amanda's allegedly dead, but actually comatose son. Amanda's preaching predecessor Mary Millicent, allegedly bed-ridden, warns the newcomer to beware of the evil Hartmanns, as once she delivers the infant she becomes expendable as Gus leaves no evidence alive. Jamie believes Mary; pregnant she flees and has her baby by herself, until she reunites with her teenage unrequited crush Joe Brammer, who joins her and baby Lynette on the lam.

THE SURROGATE starts off with a terrific premise that is cleverly executed in the first part of the novel, but turns into a Keystone Cops thriller as Joe and Jamie elude Gus' minion relatively easily, with a baby at their side while also finding time to make love on the beach. The storyline is over-filled with suspense that grips fans of Judith Henry Wall, but loses all plausibility. Exciting, but improbable, especially the second half, THE SURROGATE is for Ms. Wall's audience.