Brand-new

Nice adventure about a innocence girl who turned to a crazy crime machine

This book really captures the mind of many frauds, theives and prison cells alike. It keeps you on the edge of your seat. ( )

I was at a gift shop outside of Olympic National Park (again) when I spied a book exchange. I went over to it and flipped through a few of the offerings. Most didn't grab me at all. This one barely piqued my interest - but it seemed to be the most interesting of the bunch, so I took it with me.

What a riot! I am not embaressed IN THE LEAST to say that I LOVED reading this book. The heroine of this book, Tracy Whitney, is a typical young woman in the 1980's. She works at a bank, where she is "good with computers". Her job is to handle incoming international wires. She begins dating some big shot in the finance buisness, and they're getting married (and having a baby). Her boss is surprised when she says she plans to come back to work after the baby is born.

Anyway! Her mother dies and Tracy goes to New Orleans to avenge her death. Unfortunately, she messes with the mob and winds up in jail for attempted murder (which she technically did) and stealing a van Gogh (which she did not do). Then her fiancee abandons her and life really starts to suck. We learn all about life in a Women's Prison in Louisiana (starring a mean character named Big Bertha...what women's prison is complete without one?) and how she gets out.

Once out of jail, she decides the Straight Life isn't her thing. She gets revenge on those who got her into the mess and then goes on to be an international art thief. It becomes a caper book, and it was a good one.

It moved along quite possibly the fastest pace I've ever felt in a book. It was just page-turning. I loved her character and how she was so determined to get revenge on the men that had done her wrong, and how she sort of fell into her life of crime. It was cleverly written and total delight to read.

Now, what REALLY won this over for me: it takes place in the 1980's. This is vaguely apparent in the clothes that she describes wearing. But as I read the book, I imagined it absolutely drenched in the 80's: men with their white jacket sleeves rolled up and big hair; women in sequin-covered evening gowns and big gaudy jewelry; Tracy having to tie back her heavily sprayed bangs to fit under her black cap (ya know, the thief outfit); music from Wham! and Duran Duran playing the the background; fancy parties with people dressed up like the characters from Dynasty; normal people looking like Angela Bauer from Who's the Boss and oh! It just created such a ridiculous picture in my mind. I loved it. My imagination went uber-80's (to a point in which it was just a mockery) and the book came to bedazzled, hypercolor, radical life. It was awesome.

I will probably pick up another one of Sidney Sheldon's books in the future just so that I can revisit the 80's and the rich and famous people that life the swanky life therein.

One of the best of Sidney Sheldon's novel about a woman's revenge in many really clever ways. ( )