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_-- by Murray Moore People who complain that books don't have plots anymore will love The Cradle Will Fall by Mary Higgins Clark. Doctors and psychiatrists, maybe not. This is also the kind of book that ends, "Katie grinned back at him. 'Pretty sure of yourself, aren't you, Doctor?"' she asked him cirsply." (That is in fact the last line.) The plot of this book is so fast-paced and complex that it brings to mind a long hotel corridor seen from one end. People keep popping out of doorways and crossing and returning but they never actually run into each other. The Cradle Will Fall's plot is like that. Five days are covered in 324 pages and 81 chap- ters. An abundance of people passing in the night occurs until finally the right connections are made. Cradle Will Fall is a thriller. The identity of the murderer is no secret to the reader from early in the book. The grabber is whether the heroine will be killed by the murderer before she, or anyone else, finds him out. The locale is New Jersey, a private hospital in an area called Valley County with suburbs with streets with names like Winding Brook Lane. ; In the first two pages the heroine, Katie Demaio, widow, young, an assistant prosecutor, is introduced. The victim of an accident of her own creation, she is the wit- ness from a hospital window of a murderer's disposing of his victim. Because of shock from her accident, and sedation, she takes what she sees to be an hallucination. In form a thriller, The Cradle Will Fall owes at least as much to soap opera. Poor Katie, widowed shortly after marriage, only 28, living in her husband's mansion worth a quarter of a million dollars while making only $22,000 a year. Hard times. The plot turns on the fact that while she saw the murderer putting his victim in the trunk of a car, she dismisses it as a nightmare. No author would dare try the same thing with a male character. The plot has a few modern touches to give it a contemporary feeling, but this is a very old- fashioned, comfortable novel. Only the backgrounds of the doctor and psychiatrist who operate the private hospital come from the pages of last year's newspaper. Katie is so bothered by her female problem, loss of her husband, and fear of hospitals, that she doesn't decide what she saw was real until...(A hint to the ending: reread the last line again.) The villain of the piece, no other word for him, is a doctor of the genus Doctor Frankensteinus. It is in his mind that Clark puts the thought 'the knew enough of them (psychiatrists) by now who weren't com- petent to counsel anyone."' He is the villain of course and his egomania contributes to this EN Ne a Lockhart reunion draws many family members by Cindy Lockhart The Waverley 4-H girls and their leaders, Mrs. Armstrong and Mrs. Leonard have returned home after spending the week camping. They sure had a great week. The weatherman threw the book at us this month. The hail on Sunday put the finishing touchés to it and the gardens are fighting for survival. Despite the rainy weather, two family reunions were held this weekend. The Hockins along with some of their friends held a dance at Elmvale Community Hall on Saturday night and on Sunday ll gathered for a picnic at Sudden storm didn't seem to bother 'em Not even a _ sudden afternoon downpour damped the _ spirits aboard the Georgian Queen, Sunday §af- ternoon as she sailed amongst the 30,000 islands. Aboard were mem- Wawverleynews Truax's Park. Mrs. Hockins who is 86, has eight children living, 44 grandchildren and 74 great-grandchildren ~. Grandma Hockin is always the most popular person at the dance as each of her sons and sons-in-laws and grandchildren wait their turn to dance with Waverley's Grand Lady. Also on Sunday the family of John Lockhart held a reunion at Vasey Park. Then supper was held at the Orange Hall in Vasey. A horseshoe bers of Midland District Shrine Club, Manito Shrine Club of Collingwood and of- ficials from six other Shrine Clubs in the province. Shriners, their wives and friends were taking Gn si) diay Sastae Summer and kids just seem to go together, and what a better way to enjoy it than to sit in the rays and B2, Wednesday, July 2, 1980 tournament was_ held and the winners were Murray Lockhart of Waverley and Eric Lockhart of Arthur. These two were awarded a trophy in memory of Joe Lockhart and they will return the trophies next year for another tournament. A_ really good number of the family turned out for the occasion. John and Linda Wood and Mrs. Wood of Ottawa are visiting with Mrs. Hockins for a few days. part in their annual Midland-Collingwood Shrine Club(s) boat cruise. Although a sudden thunderstorm prompted the ship's captain to head for port, those aboard ship didn't seem play. This is what 18 month old Susan Reynoldsdid at Little Lake Park during the hot weather. Mildred and Leonard Cadeau of Newburg are visiting her mother Mrs. Hockins . Visiting Cecil Kells for the weekend were his son and daughter-in- law Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Kells' and family. Also her brother and family of Toronto visited. Mr. and Mrs. Morley Kells also called on Cecil on Sunday. Bill and Madeline Armstrong and girls called Sunday, on Winnie Armstrong and attended the Hockin picnic. Miss Amanda Stewart visited with her grand- parents Mr. and Mrs. Bill Cury this past weekend. to mind the stormy weather as they danced and sang to their hearts content. One in five Of every five deaths from all causes of Canada, one is caused by cancer. The ratio is about 56 men to 44 women. Support the Canadian Cancer Society. 50th anniversary John and Helene Penetanguishene were the guests of honour at a party given Sunday at the home of their daughter, Lorraine Campbell, also of Penetang. The Wedge's moved to Penetang, Helene's hometown, when John retired 11 years international ago. He was an thought. But Clark also has a nice minor character, Katie's sister, think of something ter husband, also a doctor, has said, "'that a lot of mistakes were made in hospitals." No disturbing political or social ideas here. The law bends backward to protect criminals (pg. 172), there's always one bleeding heart on a jury to fall for a sob story (pg. 223) and you can recognize the girlfriends of punks because they go braless and chew gum, at the same time (pg 227). Clark works hard, and successfully, to keep the story on the go from page one. The villain is suitably evil, the heroine is in the proper amount of distress, and there's no giving up before the last page. Some loose ends could have been left undone. A little untidiness would have made the ending more realistic. A good book to read during the summer. The Cradle Will Fall by Mary Higgins Clark, Simon and Shuster, distributed by Musson Book Co., $14.95. 314 pages. of representative with the International. Union of Operating Engineers. John, with the union for 26 years, covered the territory from Manitoba to Newfoundland. Their other children are John Wedge, Jr. of Toronto and Karen Massingham of Scarborough. Weather in Huronia not much to write home about A heat wave that has been pushing' the temperature up over the 100 EF mark = and punishing the U.S. southwest in recent days was responsible in part for a number of twisters appearing in southwest Ontario on Sunday. Here in Huronia a massive thunderstorm coupled with hail saw boaters, swimmers, golfers and picnickers head for shelter. The Sunday afternoon storm which lasted just over an hour came as no Surprise to those listening to radio forecasts. The May-4 code promised a rough af- ternoon and that's what Southern Georgian Bay got. There was a bright side to all of this, there were no major mishaps reported in connection with the inclement weather. As one long-time Midlander put it, "'We are just getting what's coming to us since we hada pretty good winter with very little snow." Collingwood performer tops songwriters COLLINGWOOD -- Twenty-six year old Millar Hodgart of Collingwood picked off top prize of $500 at the grand finale of the Great Georgian Bay Amateur Songwriters'. Com- petition. The top ten finalists from Collingwood, Owen Sound and the Midland area competed at the Blue Mountain bandshell Sunday af- ternoon. Hodgart, backed by a nine-piece band, got the Judges' nod and the audience's attention. $300 second-place prize went to Clive Prentice, another Collingwood area musician. Backed up by guitarist Bruce Farrow, the country and western duo entered the contest just before the area deadline. Third place prize money of $200 was won by Owen Sound performer Larry Jensen, with his accompaniest Stan Gadziola. Gadziola was also a contestant in the competition and performed a song on his own. Representatives of five recording com- panies served as judges for the afternoon event. The competition was taunched by McLean-Hunter Cable TV outlets in Midland, Collingwood and Owen Sound. Some 75 entries were auditioned on the way to the finals. Twenty-five came from the Midland area, including Nonie Thompson of Penetang, Andre Forget of Lafontaine and Dan Irvine of Midland. The Cradle Will Fall _ LT RRR se