The 2008 meltdown strikes, he loses his fortune overnight (“The house in the Hamptons was history, the time share of a plane, their penthouse on Fifth Avenue, private schools, credit cards, the Ferrari… Bentley… and the brand-new Rolls”: just to give you an impression of Steel’s signature triteness when it comes to slice-of-life detailing), his wife walks out on him, and he’s forced to return ‘home’.Īnd that’s where the post-childhood faceoff begins.

Peter leaves the small-town family fold because Michael hates him - and has brainwashed everyone around into believing Peter is no good - and strikes out on his own subsequently, he treads the corporate path, successfully, in the big city. Two twin brothers, somewhat similar in appearance but totally different in temperament. I read the review book in one sitting, and I have to admit I didn’t do it only because I was running late on deadline delivery. In fact, this is perhaps one of Danielle Steel’s better books in the (prolific) last decade. It could have been a revelation if Ms Steel had been able to provide sharp inputs into the workings of the ‘male’ psyche, more so because there is an element of twistedness in Prodigal Son but, predictably, there’s no room for surprise: like most of her other (recent) books, this is one cluttered with repetitions (making it hugely unstructured) and her annoying turns of phrases make the complex workings of the human brain appear rudimentary.īut, all’s not lost. I’ve read an awful lot of Danielle Steel, so I’m fairly certain that this is one of her rare books that have the male stream of consciousness.

The McDowell twins, Peter and Michael, are the Steel-esque versions of Cain and Abel - brothers who harbour a visceral hatred for each other, proving sibling rivalry far outweighs the flesh-and-blood fantasy. While I was reading the book, William Kane and Abel Rosnovski (courtesy Lord Archer) kept cropping up at all odd times, and there was a time when I swear they were shaking their heads in disbelief at Peter and Michael McDowell.

Obviously, Prodigal Son - reference to the Biblical parable of the prodigal son plus the meatier story of Cain and Abel - comes out horribly inept in context (comparison compounded because Kane and Abel’s sequel, as we all know, was tellingly titled The Prodigal Daughter). It’s probably unfair that Danielle Steel has to be up against the benchmark set by Jeffrey Archer’s fantastic Kane and Abel, but you cannot help but compare the two.

Cain and abel archer