Sheila Power, Three Sydney Novels
At last, an Australian novel with a cast of characters as richly overdrawn and brassy as any of the fabulous monsters in an Aaron Spelling TV series. An entertainment is a good description for this rattling good read that defies pigeon holing into any one genre. Our heroine is Sheila Power, a very rich film producer and all-round prominent social identity, who is about to start work on what will be the crowning achievement of her spectacular career. She has obtained the rights to a best-selling novel, one of those cult classics that has captured the country’s imagination…. The stylised satire and mystery are only part of the plot. Sheila’s also undergoing past-life therapy. Each session she relives a sexual experience from one of her many pasts. Baranay lets rip in these episodes with some of the best-written purple prose I’ve read in ages. When added to Sheila’s busy sex life in her current incarnation, it makes a novel dripping with erotic activity. …Sheila Power is a block-buster of a novel, a satirical thriller filled with lashings of racy sex between moments of transcendental spirituality and shopping.
-SYDNEY STAR OBSERVER