Customer Reviews

Caviar Dreams

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Amazing! Someone finally wrote a much more realistic amateur sleuth/police procedural. The characters are realistic; Lisa who is trying to be a photographer but is working as a temp in the meantime; Debbie who is sweet, somewhat naïve, wanting to believe in romance and the best in people; and the arrogant businessman who feels wealth and position are the most important things of all. Sense of place is well done, as is dialogue. But what impressed me most of all is that it is not Lisa running around investigating clues, but the police who investigate and solve the crime. And Ms. Nichols makes it all work, and ties it all together with a suspenseful ending and an absolutely delightful book. I don't often gush, but this book deserves it. Brava!

Struggling artist Lisa Watson and her friend Debbie Pratt have an evening of junk food and videos planned, homely pleasures intended to ease Lisa's recent professional disappointments. But their girls' night in proves to have unpleasant--indeed fatal--consequences. At the seedy video store Lisa drags her friend to they encounter con man Derek Grayson, who gets to work at once chatting up Debbie. She, it turns out, is just what Derek is looking for in a woman: dumpy but financially comfortable, and needy enough to fall hard for his pretty boy looks and smarmy charm. Derek quickly sets about moving in with Debbie and maxing out her credit cards, while at the same time working on his Big Score. He insinuates himself into the life of Cincinnati's most eligible bachelor, Robert Helton, the CEO of Helton International and a closeted homosexual so afraid of being outed that he's a perfect candidate for blackmail. When eventually Lisa crosses Helton's path, she becomes aware only belatedly of their mutual acquaintance with Debbie and Derek.

I was, I must say, very pleasantly surprised by this book. It's released by a small Canadian POD publisher, and it has the somewhat amateurish look of a self-published book. I was worried I'd encounter stilted prose and at best a merely adequate story. Instead what I got was a great read. The book is well written and the characters nicely developed. The plot definitely held my interest. It's in fact downright gripping in parts. There were quite a few small errors in the text that a careful editor would have caught, but nothing important enough to detract from my enjoyment of the book. Caviar Dreams is a very readable cozy--a mystery in the Colombo tradition in that we know whodunit from the get-go and follow the characters' solution of the crime. Definitely recommended. This one deserves a wider readership.

Debra Hamel -- author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in ancient Greece (Yale University Press, 2003)

A very enjoyable reading experience. The main character was so real life that I felt she was one of my close friends. Involving such real-life characters in a murder story made the book charming and hard to put down. I'm looking forward to the author's next book and hope to see the main character reappear in a future book.

There are so many books to read. Yet, I sometimes find myself bored with the "same old, same old" {even from "tried and true" authors). As I skim "new" books, they often seem so familiar that I cannot remember if I've already read them. However, Ms. Nichols' writing presents a new and fresh voice. Immediately, I realized that her characters, plot and situation were unique. The book is fast-paced -- a real page-turner which I found hard to put down. In fact, I put everything else aside and read it in one week-end.
The plot is intriguing, and the depth of situational and character exploration make this book extraordinary. The realistic portrayal of young inner-city dwellers will absorb those who have "lived the life", as well as those who have not. Perhaps most engaging of all is Ms. Nichols' depth of character exposition -- this aspect brings to mind the writings of Elizabeth George and P.D. James. You are bound to enjoy it!

I wasn't expecting much from this book and was really surprised to find such an excellent read from a new author published by a small Canadian publishing company. This is a fast moving "read on the plane" book. It is easy to get caught up in the author's world. Caviar Dreams is a great distraction from those take off & landing jitters. The crying babies just fade into the background. Her characters are three demensional and you really want to keep turning those pages.

I was hooked on this book from the start. It's funny, entertaining and compulsive. The characters are well developed and totally believeable. There are so many twists and turns, the book is a real page-turner, I couldn't wait to find out what happened next. The main character Lisa's life is turned upside down when her best friend falls in love with a thief who steals all her money, and there are devastating consequences for all involved. I would highly recommend this book.