The gist of the story- The husband hates his job, quits his career is out of work for two years and takes a loan from the money-grubbing wife's father. He finds another job and makes even more money but again hates his career and his employer. Then, one night as the money-grubber is having a party in their fancy chateau, he falls asleep at the wheel as he is coming home and drives off of a cliff into the ocean. Yep, you heard me. And get this-he lives and makes his way to a lovely little YOUNG french woman and makes love to her within several hours of her rescuing him. Repetitive, silly, unrealistic, far-fetched and without giving away character or theme storyline’s, I keep saying, “there’s no way that person would do that”. I almost gave up on this book after the first few chapters. But, I must admit that Ms. Steel does bitchy, money-grubbing wife really well, so I keep going. But, unfortunately, the story got increasingly ludicrous as it went on. I must say that it took me a while to understand that while in America, the family would have had to wait a number of years for him to have been declared dead since there was no found body, and then they could split the estate. I was surprised at how fast everything works in France. I’ve always wondered about people who can just walk away from life, and in Without a Trace, we get to see a man walk away from a lavish lifestyle, his wife, and two grown children.

So cliff guy saves her in the most boring way. Ex husband dies - shot by the cops. He moves cabin lady into his 5000 sq foot Paris apartment, his kids love her and they buy new furniture 🙄Now, what do you think the money-grubber will think about this? She already has issues with splitting his estate with their two children. If the plot wasn't bad enough, the characters of this book are just...I don't even know. First, they aren't likable. They don't read as real people. They're the same stereotypes Steel loves to use. Gorgeous young blonde. The icy older wife who is money hungry. Poor, put upon rich white guy. There wasn't a single character of substance in this book. Plus, the main character, Charles is a garbage human. Anyone who can let their children think he is dead for months is no hero. The fact that Steel thought she could make him the hero of this book shows how out of touch she is. The characters were not very likable for the most part. Although I could sympathize with Charles in wanting to leave his old life, I didn’t like that he actually let his family believe he was dead. Also, the romantic relationship between Charles and Aud was very rushed and not all that believable to me. Aud wasn’t very well developed and although she had a rough past, I didn’t understand her rush into a new relationship. Long story short-he feigns his death until one day, his hotties ex-husband breaks out of jail (yep, in there for murder) and makes his presence known to them. So the husband decides to return from the dead and make things right with his family and his finances *snort* so he can spend the rest of his life with his young hottie. Without a Trace by Danielle Steel is a fast-moving romantic suspense set in France, about a man who decides to change his life after a near-fatal accident.

One evening Charlie leaves work, driving towards their Normandy chateau. He has been working late every night, is tired and isn't concentrating. Just an hour away from the chateau, his car veers off the road, down a cliff and into the sea. The accident should have killed him – he almost felt ready to die. But he escapes – and somehow finds the strength to climb to safety. How can Ms. Steel write eight books in 2022 with another four lined up for very early 2023? I don't want to falsely accuse someone of using ghostwriters, but I cannot see how this is physically possible. I did like the book The Whittiers, which came out in November, and that is why I agreed to read the next two books, this one (published in January 2023) and Worthy Opponents, which I hope isn't as far-fetched as this book was. Charles was the CEO of the biggest plastics manufacturer in France, Jansen Plastics. It was his second career, a reincarnation after an earlier life. The job at Jansen had saved him eleven years ago.The publishing house where he had worked promoted someone from the internal ranks to take his place, make fewer waves, and do exactly what the owner wanted with no resistance. They opened a whole category of soft porn, which didn’t do as well as they’d hoped and had been sure it would. The business suffered as a result, and several of the big authors he had brought to them left when Charlie did, but for two years Charlie was out of a job. His world crumbled around him, and his personal life went with it. Ill leave you with this food for thought... In the story, it has a way of giving you a perspective on what life could be like if you just decided to get up and walk away. So I ask you, "What would you do if you had the chance to start all over, but have your loved ones left behind without knowing where, when, or if you will return"? The setting is gorgeous, part of the book is set in Paris, some of it is set in Charles’s lavish château in Normandy, and part of it is set in Aud’s small cabin, also in Normandy. All of these places are well described and made for a bit of escapism.