Most helpful customer reviews
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Pulp fiction, Feb 13 2003
Matt Engstrom is a single father and the owner of a successful construction business. His girlfriend just left him without explanation, but his life is really turned upside down when a body is found dead in the back of his pickup. Knowing the police wonï¿t be of any help, he does some investigating of his own and uncovers secrets about his company that could make things much worse for him should they become known. The expected noir elements are present: a man with a dark past thrown into situations he doesnï¿t understand, a femme fatale whom you never know whether to trust, and an especially complicated plot. Taylor is known for her often graphic but always excellent short stories of sex and horror. But where the sex in those stories was always integral, it seems included here mostly for shock value. I simply canï¿t imagine real people talking like some of them do in this novel. NAILED is trashy fun but not nearly up to the quality of her earlier, shorter work. It should appeal to readers of Richard Laymon and similar authors.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Good, slightly flawed, Aug 2 2001
A good read indeed. But there's some flaws, the inevitable trappings of a mass market paperback original: obvious padding to make the book thicker, contrived "odd" characters always found in crime thrillers (a la Lynch or Tarrantino). In fact, this book was similar in vein and scope to Michael hemmingson's WILD TURKEY -- both are set in San Diego, there's a murder, there's over-sexed villianesses, and there are Las Vegas scenes. Hemmingson and Taylor are a lot alike, and they've been publsihed in a lot of the same little mags and anthologies so that I am beginning to wonder if one isn't the pen name for the other? .
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Hooray for the New Lucy Taylor, Jul 23 2001
I’ve been looking forward to the day a mainstream commercial house would have the good horse sense to sign up Lucy Taylor. Well known in the small horror press, the erotica field, and the anthology market, Lucy Taylor’s collections and novels have all been released in limited or special runs. Nailed is her first, and longest, novelE mystery of sorts, more a novel of dark suspense, and some professional wrestling. Matt Engtrom is framed for murder. He was sent to prison for manslaughter before, killing the man who was sexually harassing his wife. So this doesn’t look good, from the police’s point of view. Being a San Diegan, it was neat to see that this novel is set in San Diego, with familiar settings in Chula Vista, Pacific Beach, and Borrego Springs. There’s a few passages that seem padded, but this is okay. I couldn’t put this book down, and read it in two days. I have always been a Lucy Tayor fan, and I’m more of a fan now. Get this book. The price is right, and you won’t regret it.
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