Beauty-Frederick Dillen

Beauty Frederick Dillen Simon and Schuster, Mar 4 2014, $25.00 ISBN 9781476716923 In New York City, Carol "The Beast" MacLean dreams of running her own company. One of her bosses at Baxter Blume promises her that this will be the last time she works as an undertaker telling people they are unemployed as their company is liquefied for its assets. Instead he promises to help her become a CEO, but conceals the truth she will be fired after she destroys the Massachusetts based Elizabeth Seafood Products on barrier isle Elizabeth Island. The Beast has never been comfortable with her role of company destructor as each time she devastates people Carol thinks of her blue collar dad. This time Carol decides to save Elizabeth Seafood Products by buying the dying firm and run it first-hand especially the all-female factory staff. Realizing the outsider is the only hope for the company, HR chief Dave Parks and CFO Annette Novato sign on to Carol’s efforts. Also backing Carol is fisherman Ezekiel "Easy" Parsons as each is attracted to one another. However, her chances of saving Elizabeth Seafood increasingly look dismal when she realizes how the illegal practices of the previous owners left the business bankrupt at a time when the government appears ready to reduce the fish catch that is the supply bloodline of a beleaguered company, town and New England coastal communities. Beauty is an engaging second chance at life tale that focuses on the upbeat rather than on the underdeveloped suspense. Still readers will appreciate Frederick Dillen’s timely warm drama as fishermen and Wives of the Sea rally around their Beauty who no longer answers to the Beast. Harriet Klausner