Rating: 
Summary: Not nearly as good as the series
Review: I was very disappointed in The Wonder Worker. Alice was the only voice I really could read. When we got to Lewis I just skipped over much of his complaining and read the rest rapidly to get the gist of the plot. The Starbridge series was compelling and the theology interesting, so Howatch's secular novel disappointed me.
Rating:
Summary: A Tedious Installment in a Fascinating Series
Review: Nick Darrow, the psychic Anglican priest, was one of my favorite characters in the 6 novel Starbridge series so I was very glad to see Susan Howatch reprise him in his 40s in this novel. He was much younger in "Mystical Paths," which took place before his ordination. Howatch told the Starbridge stories with one narrator in first person for each of the Starbridge novels. With this one, she returns to a device she used in her "Cashelmara" and "Penmarric" days of having alternating characters tell the story in first person. Nick has a ministry of healing and deliverance using his psychic powers. Lewis Hall, his former spiritual director, now lives and works with him. The danger for Nick is in the temptation to become a Wonder Worker. This is where he becomes a charismatic Christian healer who works in pursuit of his own fame and glory rather than God's. This book also has more of a love story develop within it than some of the other Starbridge novels did and you see it develop from the main characters' points of view. Venetia reappears from the Starbridge series also and takes up with Lewis Hall. These characters all reappear in the novel which came after this one, "The High Flier," but they are no longer the leads in that novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Nick Darrow Is Back!
Review: Nick Darrow, the psychic Anglican priest, was one of my favorite characters in the 6 novel Starbridge series so I was very glad to see Susan Howatch reprise him in his 40s in this novel. He was much younger in "Mystical Paths," which took place before his ordination. Howatch told the Starbridge stories with one narrator in first person for each of the Starbridge novels. With this one, she returns to a device she used in her "Cashelmara" and "Penmarric" days of having alternating characters tell the story in first person. Nick has a ministry of healing and deliverance using his psychic powers. Lewis Hall, his former spiritual director, now lives and works with him. The danger for Nick is in the temptation to become a Wonder Worker. This is where he becomes a charismatic Christian healer who works in pursuit of his own fame and glory rather than God's. This book also has more of a love story develop within it than some of the other Starbridge novels did and you see it develop from the main characters' points of view. Venetia reappears from the Starbridge series also and takes up with Lewis Hall. These characters all reappear in the novel which came after this one, "The High Flier," but they are no longer the leads in that novel.
Rating:
Summary: A gripper.
Review: On the back of this wonderful book there is a picture of Susan Howatch, smiling. Having just finished the last page, I now know she's smiling at the reader, absolutely delighted with the act she's just pulled off.
Howatch's series on the English clergy has been excellent from the start, but this book is
what my wife and I call a "gripper." It is more riveting than the best thriller I've read in a
long time.
Into the Healing Centre comes Alice, who looks like the back end of a bus, but cooks
cordon bleu. Her self-esteem is zilch, a word she uses often to describe what she's gotten
out of life. When she stumbles into a service conducted by the gorgeous, charismatic
Father Nicholas Darrow, she's bowled over. When he gets her a job in the rectory of the
Healing Centre, we're off to the races, because everybody is in love with Nick--especially
Nick.
Like Howatch's other books, this one is a study of clerical life, its joys and its very
considerable hazards. Nick really is a psychic healer. Unfortunately, he's hard put to keep
himself from using his special grace for his own quite unconscious purposes. When he
slips, his analyses of other people's problems are so far wrong that they would be ludicrous
if the people themselves weren't at horrible risk. The story is about the ways in which the
main characters--Alice, Nick, Nick's wife Rosalind, his partner Father Lewis Hall, his
unfortunate curate Stacy and the chief of the Centre's "befrienders," Francie--cope with
their own problems when they are being helped and/or driven out of their minds by Nick. It's not pretty, but sometimes it's hilarious.
If you think religion is for sissies, this book might change your mind. I have a feeling that
some slightly stuffy critics might call it melodrama, but then that's what they said about the
works of Dickens and Trollope, too. In fact, this is a very serious novel about very serious
matters, but don't worry, it's also a moving and fascinating story. You might as well block
out a few hours and plan to stay glued to your chair when you tackle this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Read Straight Through - Could not put it down
Review: Other reviewers mention other books by this author and compare. Since I have never read her books and have nothing to compare this one to, I found the book most compelling. I couldn't put it down. I had to find out what happened to Francie and Stacy, and how Rosalind resolved her problems. I will read other books by this author
Rating:
Summary: Riveting Romance with Intelligence and Discovery
Review: Susan Howatch has enveloped the reader in a menage of intertwining relationships and their reflections from each character in such a way as to capture the intelligence and interest of the avid reader. Her insight into such different characters and their own reflections on their involvement with each other is both insightful and just plain riviting to read. The consistent and faithful reader of books will enjoy the serious side of Howatch's examinations, yet the reader will not be disappointed by the need and satisfaction of romance.
Rating:
Summary: A Tedious Installment in a Fascinating Series
Review: The literary problem with this novel, which so many readers find so riveting, is its construction. The book is broken into five parts narrated by four different interconnected persons. While it is interesting to view events as through a prism, this technique wears thin in page after page of rambling prose. This novel would have been much stronger if it had been edited down. Much too much verbiage! Much too much wandering over the same territory! At one point I wondered why I kept plodding on. The answer is, you get hooked on these characters due to this surplice-ripping series as a whole. Despite several melodramatic moments, nothing much happens in this novel-- it could have been condensed into a fine short story. For a budding Howatch fan, I recommend "Glittering Images" or particularly the incredible potboiler "The High Flyer" over this book any day.
Rating:
Summary: The story is all consuming. Be prepared to be swept in.
Review: The story and characters hooked me immediately. I began to fear that all would not be resolved within the last ten pages. I couldn't bring myself to read any faster. The twists were great and kept you guessing. The introduction into the Anglican Catholic Church was reminiscent of Father Andrew Greely's books. I found it very informative as well as entertaining. I would greatly hope that Ms. Howatch will find a few more stories to tell.
Rating: 
Summary: A Bit Disappointing
Review: The Wonder Worker was a disappointment. Although it contained all the elements I love about Susan Howatch -- her knowledge of the Church of England, her deft use of multiple narrators, and her ability to capture the spiritual dimension of human endeavor -- this work did not meet the standards of her previous Starbridge novels. The characters and improbable plotting were the problems. Besides Alice in the first section of the novel and a surprisingly deep Rosalind, the characters were unpleasantly self-indulgent and self-absorbed. It was impossible to find much redeeming about the misogynistic and homophobic Lewis, who was much more finely nuanced in Howatch's earlier Absolute Truths. Even worse, it was difficult to muster up many positive thoughts about Nicholas, the wonder worker himself. An especially unpleasant aspect of the novel was its "MacGuffin," that is, the device or event that precipitates the crisis at the center of the novel. In this case, it was a tragic death. The other characters, Christian healers all, are so absorbed with saving their own skins and Nick's ministry that, with the exception of Alice, don't even bother to pray for their lost colleague. It makes one wonder why Nicholas' ministry was so worth saving.
Rating:
Summary: Another compelling story of spitiual struggle and intrigue
Review: The Wonder Worker, by Susan Howatch, is another in her series about spiritual struggles within the Anglican clergy. It is not technically a "Starbridge" novel, because it takes place in London, but it does include many of the same group of characters, with a few additions. Nicholas Darrow, a psychic priest, faces a moral dilemma involving pride and the misuse of his gifts. Caught up in his healing ministry, he flounders, blunders, then regains his spiritual equilibrium with the help of an irascible colleague and a formidable Roman Catholic nun. The plot is similar, in respect to the spiritual path of the protagonist, to the others in the Starbridge series. The reader need not have read the others in the Starbridge series to enjoy the latest work. However, readers will want to explore the previous Starbridge novels after reading The Wonder Worker. Spiced with intrigue and a particularly nasty bout with demons, the novel entertains and engages as it leads to the surprising denouement.
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