WHEN GOOD GIRLS GO BAD A MOTOR CITY THRILLER (Book).

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Author: DeCrescenzo, Teresa

WHEN GOOD GIRLS GO BAD A MOTOR CITY THRILLER
By Therese Szymanski
Bella Books, Ferndale, MI www.bellabooks.com

If you admire butch-femme relationships, find bondage and domination sex titillating, and are willing to suspend logic, this is the book for you to curl up with. First, there is butch-bad-girl herself, Brett Higgins. A former gangster, more or less gone legitimate, she owns and operates a strip club. Though it isn't bada-bing, it is straight out of The Sopranos. On her way into work one day in a scene frankly borrowed from Law and Order, Brett discovers a body next to the dumpster. The deceased is Nicola, one of Brett's own dancers. No one seems bothered that a young woman is dead. There is much harrumphing about lifestyles, reaping what's sown, and hookers being trash, with a sprinkling of rosary beads to remind us that the victims (we soon learn that the dead woman is the third within a week) were once "good girls." The story follows the usual Law and Order plot, with a lesbian twist.

Then there is the job applicant, who just happens along looking for a dancing opportunity moments after Nicola's body is found. Since the dead girl's shift is now conveniently open, Brett offers the newcomer a job that afternoon, after a brief audition. Victoria is a doppelganger for Storm, Brett's lover who was murdered a book or two ago. Brett chooses the stage name Tempest for the new girl, but never thinks to ask about Tempest/Victoria and Storm's uncanny resemblance.

The problem with When Good Girls Go Bad is that Szymanski tries to get too much into one book. She's a pretty good storyteller, but it just seems a bit much.

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By Teresa DeCrescenzo