- Hardcover: 336 pages
- Publisher: Delacorte Press (Dec 28 1999)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0385333803
- ISBN-13: 978-0385333801
- Product Dimensions: 20.6 x 14 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 454 g
- Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Best-selling romantic thriller author Adler (Now or Never; Sooner or Later) trots out a pair of lovebirds on the trail of a serial killer in her 12th novel. Hollywood Hills private investigator Al Giraud hails from New Orleans's wrong side of the tracks; a tough-talking dick, he's as much a lover as a sleuth. Marla Cwitowitz is the gorgeous 30-something lawyer who's crazy about him and, after wheedling Al to give her assistant PI status, becomes his partner both on and off the job. They are a stereotypically mismatched couple: Al asks high-class law professor Marla, "What the hell d'ya see in me? An uneducated bum, an ex-cop, a two-bit P.I.? A lovely woman like you?" But Marla adores his street smarts, dinner conversation, and lovemaking skills, and she's thrilled at the thought of working with her man investigating murders. The trouble begins when a real estate agent, California golden girl Laurie Martin, disappears. Burly detective Lionel Bulworth and his brazen assistant Pamela "Pow!" Powers believe Laurie's client Steve MallardAwhose job is forcing him to relocate his Los Angeles-based family to San DiegoAis the guilty party. None too coincidentally, Al and Marla happened to notice Laurie and Steve together before the alleged murder. As far as they could tell, Laurie and Steve were not romantically involved, which does away with the cops' theory that Steve killed Laurie in a jealous rage. Steve's wife, the level-headed Vicki, hires Al and Marla to prove her husband's guilt or innocence. Inevitably, they tangle with the killer, and everyone's melodramatic gamble is the inspiration for the title clich?. Occasionally evocative imagery counteracts irritating and incessant brand name-dropping and superficial characterizations. (Dec.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Adler (Sooner or Later, 1997, etc.) may have moved from cream-stuffed romance to sensuously creamy suspense, but she's still heavy on the gardenia scent and crushed velvet. Retired New Orleans homicide detective Al Giraud is now a private investigator in L.A., where law professor and ex-DA Marla Cwitowitz falls for him and decides she wants to be a p.i. tooAl's partner, in fact. The couple trade a ton of martinis and Nick-and-Nora sexual badinage, but never in a Dashiell Hammett mystery does a tanned p.i. wear an ``ankle-length silk jersey skirt slit to the thigh, and a tiny white chiffon top embroidered with pale green butterflies. In a La Jolla bar, Al and Marla see Laurie Martin, a tall, unmarried, blond realtor with good legs and a gold snake ring, pushing a Laguna Beach seaside house on electronics executive Steve Mallard. He may be married, but Mallard looks like a dead duck after dining with Laurie for two weeks in a fruitless search for the right house. When Laurie disappears and her car is found with blood on the backseat, Steve is the prime suspect. He hires Al and Marla to find Lauries missing body and exonerate him. Later, dogs sniff out a body at the bottom of a canyon near where the bloody car was found. What tie did or does Laurie Martin have to Bonnie Victor, other than owning the same dog? Is Laurie Martin even Laurie Martin? When Marla and Steves wife, Vickie, are attacked with a knife in the Mallards kitchen, will Vickie emerge from the resulting coma? The climax is a literal cliffhangerpresumably because villains no longer tie heroines to the railroad tracks. Call this film noir on silk sheets. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence
AL GIRAUD, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR, was sitting in the bar of the Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel, eating miniature pretzels and drinking a Samuel Adams dark ale, contemplating life and the fact that he couldn't have a cigarette while waiting for the always late woman in his life. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
AL GIRAUD, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR, was sitting in the bar of the Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel, eating miniature pretzels and drinking a Samuel Adams dark ale, contemplating life and the fact that he couldn't have a cigarette while waiting for the always late woman in his life. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining, but not spectacular,
By
This review is from: All or Nothing (Mass Market Paperback)
This was my first Elizabeth Adler book. It started off good, and it did have several worthy twists that were different and refreshing, but...There were too many times the POV switched within the narrative. First we're in Giraud's head and in the next sentence we're in Marla's. At least this was consistent, but disturbing. Sometimes there was a chapter or scene break to let us know we're in someone else's head, but that was the exception rather than the rule. I also found Marla a bit too conveniently motherly to the poor accused man's wife at times. She seemed like a sex pot one time and then she suddenly had all of these maternal instincts pouring out. Didn't jibe with me. Overall, however, it was not a bad read. I didn't put it down or want to stop and it was easy to get through. And I did like Marla and Giraud's playfulness. They would be a good duo for a sequel.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Short but enjoyable,,
By John Savoy "International Film Maker" (California,) - See all my reviews
This review is from: All or Nothing (Mass Market Paperback)
All Or Nothing by Elizabeth Adler, is a short but enjoyable book. The characters are fun, the dialogue interesting, and the plot had me swiftly turning the pages. An appealing combination.John Savoy
5.0 out of 5 stars
A cute story,
By
This review is from: All or Nothing (Mass Market Paperback)
This is a very easy book to read, if you can read it in an airplane you will enjoy your flight and your book, the story of a private investigator and his girlfriend solving a very peculiar case (her first case) is really cute.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
Most recent customer reviews |
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
