Crystal Clear
Reviews • Inspiration • Read the First Chapter
No one craves order more than Crystal Goldstein does. Partner at one of New York's finest accounting firms, doting daughter to her aging father, and loyal girlfriend to her boyfriend, Steven, her life is completely under control. But when Crystal discovers that Steven has been cheating on her with his ex-wife, that her father has spent his gruff silent years yearning for a brother she never knew she had, and that - thanks to downsizing - her job may be in jeopardy, she is brought up really short.
Suddenly, the 43-year-old nose-to-the-grindstone bean counter has to consider that maybe her best friend Rona - a New Age junkie - is right! Maybe her aura does need cleansing. Maybe her chakras do need balancing. Though never one to follow fads or trends, Crystal unexpectedly finds herself on the ultimate long-overdue vacation in mystic, metaphysical Sedona, Arizona. Amanda Wells Reid, the international jet-setter, consummate party-goer, and darling of the society columnists, is to be Crystal's companion, along with her personal assistant, personal chef, personal trainer, and personal publicist. And when the tour driver appears, he is none other than Terry Hollenbeck, the irresistibly handsome, infallibly charming, totally irresponsible husband Crystal tossed out so many years ago.
It doesn't take a psychic to know that the mix of a reappearing ex-husband whose appeal has only ripened and a millionaire heiress who suddenly vanishes is going to add up to some pretty steamy doings.
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The Palm Beach Post
3/8/98
Reviewed by Marilyn Murray Willison
Before too long Jane Heller is sure to be named one of Florida's statewide treasures. Her first book, Cha Cha Cha, is a classic of well-done humorous fiction. Her follow-up novels -- The Club, Infernal Affairs, and Princess Charming -- were good, serviceable, but flawed books that hinted at the author's talent.
Finally Heller has given us a worthy follow-up to the flawless Cha Cha Cha and it has been well worth the wait.
The main character is an endearing but confused Manhattan CPA. Meet Crystal Goldstein: "Happy? Who's happy? Life isn't about happiness anymore. It's about finding a half-hour in the day to read a magazine or call a friend or just put your feet up and do absolutely nothing. I'm so busy being busy, so consumed with getting everything done and crossing everything off the list, that I don't have time to be happy. I'm too tired to be happy."
The dramatic tension of the book emerges as Crystal's job as a CPA is threatened, her almost-fiance begins to lose interest in her, her widowed father won't even turn the TV off when she travels to visit him, and she is forced to admit that she simply doesn't have a life. What she does have is an ex-husband whom she hasn't seen in 20 years.
Crystal's life takes a turn when her secretary, Rona, urges her to travel to Sedona, Ariz., to get her aura cleansed and search for some spiritual fulfillment. The unlikely combination of a New York CPA searching to find a higher meaning in the Arizona desert is a perfect setup for Jane Heller's insightful wit. Crystal mulls over her secretary's suggestion.
"Rona was, hands down, the most evolved person I knew. She meditated in the office every morning in one of the stalls in the ladies room, was a heavy user of the Psychic Friends Network, and quoted frequently and liberally from The Celestine Prophecy."
Crystal finds herself in Sedona with a grab bag of unusual personalities, all of whom are there for their own reasons. Particularly amusing is Amanda Reid, who is intent upon becoming the Martha Stewart of metaphysics.
In the midst of Crystal's search for the perfect vortex, who should turn up as her tour guide but her long-lost ex-husband, Terry. A single father who has - finally - developed a sense of responsibility, Terry has evolved into the man Crystal once wished he could be.
In the midst of this unlikely blend of unique personalities, Heller manages to intersperse a missing person mystery that rings true.
An heiress disappears and Terry's best friend finds himself accused of murder.
Crystal, who had been fascinated by this particular member of the tour, finds herself involved in solving a case that the police are too jaded to investigate.
It's gratifying to watch Crystal evolve from a frantic, overworked urban professional into a woman who is willing to take a few illogical chances when they come her way.
Heller does a splendid job of capturing the pressures of modem life -- as well as the potential for pleasure -- in this concise, entertaining novel.
Washington Sunday Times
4/5/98
Mysteries
Reviewed by Judith Kreiner
Chilled by all that time in Alaska? Warm up with Jane Heller's Crystal Clear, set in Sedona, Ariz. Crystal Goldstein has little use for New Age beliefs, but she agrees she could use a vacation - and, hey, a little transfusion of psychic energy couldn't hurt..
But she begins to wonder when she finds herself sitting alongside the ex-husband she hasn't seen or heard from in 20 years. It's quite a reunion, especially when a friend of that ex-husband's is accused of kidnapping and killing a wealthy wacko who is making a spirit quest in search of inspiration for a new line of clothing.
This one is as airy and delightful as a meringue, a froth of mystery and mayhem whipped with a large dose of romance and seasoned with some New Age spice.
Kirkus Reviews
January 1, 1998
More frivolous, flaky fun from Heller, who's quickly becoming the master of the slick urban modern woman's getaway romance. Crystal Goldstein is a Manhattan stereotype: a working woman (in this case, a CPA) of a certain age (about 40) who has no time for anything resembling a life. Her first marriage--to the charming but lazy Terry Hollenbeck--lasted only a matter of months. Now, when she learns that the man she's been dating for years, an unbelievably boring and uptight attorney, has been cheating on her with the ex-wife he's married and divorced twice, Crystal takes the news as a wake-up call. With the help of her New Age-y but loving friend and secretary Rona Wishnick, Crystal (who, in spite of her name, is as pragmatic as you can get) decides to take a vacation at a resort called Tranquility in Sedona, Arizona. Once there, she signs up for the apparently obligatory (according to Rona) Sacred Earth Jeep Tour, a weeklong drive through Sedona's spiritual sites that turns out to offer plenty of forced interaction with the driver/tour guide and the other six tour groupies. To Crystal's shock, she immediately recognizes the driver she's been assigned to--it's Terry, of course, looking better than ever at 43. Worse yet, several calls from Rona reveal that attorney Steven is hot on her trail, vowing to give up his ex-ex-wife forever if Crystal will marry him. Crystal's touring companions, meanwhile, aren't much help: Amanda Reid is a socialite with an attitude as big as her bank account, and the rest of the group includes her entourage (cook, p.r. agent, physical therapist, personal assistant) and a reporter doing a story on Amanda's writer husband, who's penned his first book in decades. What ultimately happens in the desert comes as a surprise only to Crystal. A modern spin on a good old-fashioned Cinderella story.
Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
A phone conversation with a friend triggered the idea for Crystal Clear, my fifth novel. I was chatting with Judy Martin, the former community relations director at a local Barnes & Noble store, about what I might write about next when she said, "I think your next heroine should go to an ashram." I paused, letting the idea sink in, then said, "Maybe not an ashram but what about Sedona, Arizona? Isn't that the mecca for those searching for inner peace?" "It sure is," she said. "Haven't you ever been there?"
The answer was no. I hadn't been to Sedona, but I had heard what a fascinating place it was and had seen 
photographs of its majestic red rocks. Before I knew what hit me, I had called America West Airlines and booked round-trip flights for my husband and me. And then I cooked up a plot for a book called Crystal Clear, in which a harried New York accountant named Crystal Goldstein journeys to Sedona in search of inner peace. What she finds instead is the ex-husband she hasn't seen in two decades. It's a spoof about how commercialized the New Age Movement has become (there really are psychics and numerologists and channelers on every corner handing out business cards!), but it's also a story about second chances at love ... whether two people who couldn't make a marriage work when they were young can grow and change and find happiness later in life.
Kensington published Crystal Clear in hardcover in 1998 and in paperback in 1999. Readers tell me it's the next best thing to visiting Sedona. I hope you'll agree.
When you travel to Sedona, you absolutely must have your aura cleansed! Here I am, having mine cleansed by our Lakota Sioux guide, who took us to Sedona's famous vortex sites and Indian ruins and made the trip so much more than merely "research."
