12 Bliss Street: A Novel [Hardcover]

Martha Conway (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2, 2003

Nicola is having a really bad day. She’s tired of her job, her boss, and even her San Francisco apartment, which she’s just heard she’s being evicted from anyway. Her life’s only excitement is fueled by fantasy – about the expensive lingerie she wears under her business suits, about a man she sees at lunch every day, a darkly handsome man she calls Chorizo, after the kind of pizza he orders. She’s flat-out tired of her life, and nothing brings it home more than running into her annoying but harmless ex-husband, Scooter, on the way to work.

But if ever anyone learns a lesson in “be careful what you wish for,” it’s Nicola, because suddenly her life seems to be full of excitement. First she gets kidnapped after kickboxing class by two inept teenagers who, it turns out, aren’t your garden-variety ransom kidnappers at all. But before she can resolve this situation, her innocent flirtation with Chorizo turns sinister. Suddenly Nicola’s problem is no longer how to survive her boredom but how to survive, period. All in all, Martha Conway’s debut is a deliciously hip, sexy, and suspenseful crime novel.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Martha Conway’s short stories have been published in The Iowa Review, The Quarterly, and Folio, among others. In 1993 she published a groundbreaking piece of hyper-fiction called Girl Birth Water Death. This is her first novel.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

After her divorce Nicola began buying lingerie: dark blue contour bras, demi bras in little-girl white, embroidered bustiers, stretch mesh chemises, and a red girdle with removable garters that the catalog listed as a Jolly Susan. She wore silk panties to work, and at night bathed in almond oil baths, the scent of which reminded her of the young boy in Istanbul who’d sold her husband a wallet. That had been their last trip together as a couple, a belated sort of honeymoon. But it was just another mistake, along with the home hair-care pyramid scheme, the water bed, and Scooter’s office fling (if you could call a video-delivery van an office), all of which led to Nicola’s increasing awareness that her husband was unstable – and not in the fun way.

---from 12 Bliss Street

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; 1st edition (June 2, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312315430
• ISBN-13: 978-0312315436
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,238,027 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent crime novel!, June 10, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: 12 Bliss Street: A Novel (Hardcover)

I was pleasantly surprised how strong Martha Conway's first novel is. 12 Bliss Street is a true rarity -- a gripping, well-plotted crime novel that is taut, funny, and full of interesting, rich characters.

Martha has an incredibly deft hand. She can go from a very delicate, sensitive first date, first kiss scene -- to a savage cruel snuff-film murder. The changes of pace are startling and intense, very filmic material.

Her characters are a pleasure. Nicola, the heroine, is smart, funny, but not your typical hard-beaten crime novel type. She's just a regular web developer with a vivid imagination and a thing for wearing lingerie to work. She gets entangled with criminals, but proves smarter than them!

With many pleasant surprises, laugh-out-loud criminal bumbling, and a stunningly gripping finale, I can't recommend this novel highly enough. Go out and read it right now!

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars a cheesy beach read, March 13, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: 12 Bliss Street: A Novel (Hardcover)

Luckily for me, I bought this with plans of unwinding on a beach vacation because it was pretty cheesy. I don't think any of the characters were likeable and I don't think the whole plot was particularly plausible. To be honest, I left the book in my hotel rather than pack it back up to bring home. I didn't plan on rereading it...ever.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars noir novel for the oh's, July 24, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: 12 Bliss Street: A Novel (Hardcover)

Martha Conway makes an impressive debut with her first novel, 12 Bliss Street. It's a twenties/thirties-something noir thriller with a terrific heroine and a creepy crime. Very well written, suspenseful, and often funny. Nicola has it all -- looks, charm, brains and a great sense of humor. She outwits both the worst and the most foolish of bad guys.

Ms. Conway also knows how to paint a scene, from teen life outside school walls to the back-biting, bickering world of high tech office politics. This book is a fun read.