By the time he wrote his first book at age fifty-three, Sidney Sheldon had already had a substantial impact on popular culture via the creation of successful screenplays and television series, but his subsequent career as a novelist has far eclipsed everything that preceded it. Along with such rivals as Irving Wallace, Jacqueline Susann, Harold Robbins, and Judith Krantz, Sheldon has dominated the bestseller lists by producing fast-moving tales of sex and power among the jet set, such as Bloodline, The Other Side of Midnight, and A Stranger in the Mirror. And, like these other authors, Sheldon's popularity with the public has been in inverse proportion to his standing with literary critics. Unfazed by the critics' disapproval of his efforts, Sheldon continues to create tales that enthrall readers and--bringing his career full circle—often find a second life dramatized as feature films or television...