The 547-page book "unearths few gems from a house in disarray", writes Shawn Sell in USA Today. It is "too little, too late". Although "fascinating tidbits emerge . . . there's nothing really revelatory here". Mr Sell says "these stories have been floating around for decades; Kelley merely substantiates them (although readers can't help but wonder where the verbatim conversations come from). Her considerable sources, named and anonymous, do offer scurrilous details and minutiae."
The Washington Post says the book, which is not being published in Britain for legal reasons, is "a grab-bag: some well-worn history, numerous episodes already reported elsewhere".
Ms Kelley is quoted as saying that her preference was to delay publication of the book until January following the death of Princess Diana on August 31st.
The chairman of Time Warner Trade Publishing, Mr Larry Kirshbaum, said a few days after the funeral: "We didn't want to appear to be exploiting a tragic situation about which we all feel terrible." But there was a change of heart and the book is being published this week.
However, People magazine is reported to have decided against running the first serial excerpt it bought months ago for $25,000. A magazine spokeswoman said: "It's just obvious that it's inappropriate at this time."
Reuter adds from London: British newspapers yesterday derided the book as the work of a muckraker who had trouble distinguishing between fact and fiction.
The romantic novelist, Barbara Cartland, Princess Diana's step-grandmother, denied ever having spoken to or corresponded with Ms Kelley. "My secretary told me she wasn't safe," Ms Cartland told the Independent. "So she wouldn't let me speak to her."