Review by Shirley-Tome -- Ophelia by Norman Bacal

[Shirley-Tome]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Ophelia" by Norman Bacal.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Betrayal, greed, lust for power and murder, all captivatingly encapsulated in Ophelia by Norman Bacal. The author brilliantly takes the reader into a world of bitter corporate wrangles that cause family drama and lead to deadly consequences.

The story begins with a recollection of an event that occurred in Gerhard’s childhood that shapes his entire adult life. Gerhard Nielson (commonly referred to as Geri in the book) and Red King are founders of Danmark, a giant pharmaceutical company that grows under their leadership over several decades. Geri’s son, Thalem Nielson (also referred to as Tal) works at Danmark. Although suffering from drug-related issues, he is a brilliant young man. He comes up with a revolutionary idea to spur Danmark’s growth in international drugs sales, which Red and Geri do not take any interest in. Tal is also involved in a relationship, although short-lived, with a woman named Ophelia. As the story advances, Ophelia’s presence in his life reveals an interesting series of events as to why she is with Tal.

Trudi Darrow, Tal’s mother, plots ways to take control of Danmark. She finds herself in the middle of a dangerous and illegal business deal that Danmark was engaged in with a Chinese company, Cunzhuang. Tal and Trudi’s estranged relationship takes the story through a series of suspense and clever twists. Will Trudi’s plans to control Danmark succeed? What is to become of Tal amid all his family drama? Why is Ophelia in Tal’s life? Grab a copy of the book and find out!

As I was reading Ophelia, I was impressed by how the author managed to cleverly intertwine the stories of each character, fitting them together like a perfectly solved puzzle. It was exciting to be held in suspense and I found myself making many assumptions as to how the story would unfold, only for an unexpected turn of events to occur, creating a mind-blowing reading experience!

The only negative aspect I could think of the book is its title. As I read the book, I was expecting Ophelia to be the main and key character in the book. However, the story could go on for several chapters without mentioning her. Although she plays a role in the story, I did not feel her impact to be significant enough for the book to be named Ophelia.

I found it nearly impossible to put this book down as the story was very captivating. Norman Bacal develops the plot and executes the story in a way that captures the attention of the reader. The characters are well developed, each playing a role into the story. There are no sexually explicit scenes in the book and the language is friendly. There were no grammatical errors that I could spot in the book and I therefore give it a rating of 4 out of 4 stars. I highly recommend this book to adults who love to read about corporate politics and crime fiction stories.

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Ophelia
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[ObianujuJane]

This is review is captivating and I love it

[John Owen]

I love books with conspiracy stories. Nice and informative review!

[Holly Fleming]

Ophelia sounds like an engaging read, and I'm glad to hear that the characters have depth. I might add this one to my reading list. Thank you for an insightful review!

[Anna Bookowski]

I just downloaded it to read and your review tells me I've made a good decision. It sounds exciting!
Concerning the title, there's one more aspect to it - I already know that Ophelia isn't the main character of the book - but also, this seems like the title that was already used many times for other books! It makes it less distinctive and gets easily lost among other positions with the same title or its variations.
Anyway, this aside, I'm sure I'm going to enjoy it!