Customer Reviews

The Chili Queen: A Novel

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

THINK AGAIN! The plot twists and turns at the end of the book so many times!I love reading about books from my home state and this
one was such a gripping tale of who is really the "bad guy". Make sure you leave lots of time because once you get into it, you won't want to put it down!

Well! What a book! I am a huge fan of Sandra Dallas, but I will say, after getting about half-way through this book, I really wasn't impressed. The stories of Addie and Ned just kind of mosied along, nothing overly exciting, but once the book turned to Emma's tale...wow!!

I truly didn't realize just how much everyone was out to screw each other over, and the way everything went down was completly surprising! This really is a great book, I only gave it 4 stars because as I said, the first half was a little slow...but stick with it! The last half will make the pages fly by!

This book starts slow. I really didn't want to finish it at first. But kept reading as I liked Sandra Dallas' other books. This book tells about the lives of people in the southwest in the 1880's. First, Addie, who has had a rough life. She ran away from home after her dad died and her mother remarried a man who made advances towards her when her mother would lock the bedroom door and not let him in. She went to San Antonio, Texas and ran a chili stand...there she became the Chile Queen. Later she ended up in Nalgitas, New Mexico in a brothel, where the madam left and sold the business to Addie. The book starts with Addie getting on a train, from Kansas City to Nalgitas. She had been there to meet a "john". There, she meets Emma. Emma, who has had a rough life herself, is desposited on the train by her "brother", who yells at her and belittles her while telling her not to sit with any men. Then he proceeds to sit her next to Addie. Addie befriends this young woman, who on her way to Nalgitas as a mail order bride. Things don't turn out for Emma as planned and she ends up in Addie's "boarding house". There the plot thickens.....and as I said earlier, it was slow at first. But as you get into the book, with it's twists and turns you will be more entertained. The books also tells of the other character's lives. One is of the life of Ned Partner, who is a lover of Addie and a bank robber;another is of John, who is Emma's brother and comes to Nalgitas to finalize a land deal with Emma, Ned and Addie. It also tells of Welcome, who is Addie's black housekeeper. But nothing is as it seems. The story takes you on horseback through the plains of New Mexico and Colorado as the con men run from the person they swindled. Who is that? Read and find out. And who is the conmen.....only to the last chapter will you find out. And believe me......nothing is as it seems. You will not be disappointed. I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 because it seems to drag on at first. But this "dragging on" had to set the scene for what happens later. Read it, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

I am a lover of Sandra Dallas' books, especially _The Diary of Mattie Spenser_. Those who love western novels written in the 1800's should check out her work.

_The Chili Queen_ takes place in Nalgitas, New Mexico in the 1860's. It is fairly evident from the start that someone is trying to swindle someone. The roof over most of them is called The Chili Queen, which is basically your standard bed bug infected whorehouse. The characters are colorful and entertaining enough to keep the novel lively. There is Addie, a buxom madame in charge of her "girls'" in the house of compromised repute. Meet Ned Partner, her lover and known outlaw/bankrobber/hustler-but nice guy. Also, pathetic Emma, a gawky helpless spinster left at the altar by a mail order husband and her abusive brother, John, who apparantly has sold her to some guy and likewise cheated her of her rightful inheritance. Most notable, a black slave employed as the housemother of the Chili Queen named Welcome reigns considerable authority over the group.

The ultimate question is that something is going on, and someone is doing something not right, but who is it, and is it a he or she?

A purely entertaining novel, this will not change your life or be the best book you have ever read, but it is fun and worth the time. Enjoy.

The Chili Queen: A Novel

I really enjoy most of Sandra Dallas' works, and in particular the Persian Pickle club. This one was lighter than most, with a touch of farce. What ruined it for me was the graphic description of the violent end of Emma's husband and daughter. While the event sets up her motives, we could have got the idea without reading about how her 7 year old is raped and her skull is crushed. That image overpowered the rest of the story.

Dallas certainly had fun writing this story, and her enthusiasm shows on every page. This one kept me guessing to the very end, and I would never have unraveled the threads of this intricately woven tale. Enjoyable read!

One of the best I would love to see Cate Blanchett as Emma, Addie palyed by Kathy ( Cathy)Bates- Welcome- who knows and I havent cast the mail lead yet - any suggestions I have read all of her books and this, by far, is my favorite

When starting a new Sandra Dallas book there is always the very solid (reassuring) knowledge that you are heading for a pleasant treat. "Not a book that would change your life" as one reviewer commented, but truly pure enjoyment. This was indeed my feeling during the reading of this book and after ending it I was sorry to part from these colorful spicy characters. Let me also add that the experience was rather short, as Dallas books are always a fast read.
The Chili Queen is not different from Dallas other books in the sense that here again we get a close look on mostly women characters of the West, their daily life and struggles. However, whereas Dallas always centers around women sisterhood, portraying most often one personal woman world ("Alice Tulips", "The diary of Mattie Spencer" and "The Persian Pickle Club") among other secondary characters, in this book the scope is broadened to give us two women and a man as the main characters, and all of them are quite unique, nothing of the ordinary folks we see in her other stories.
This is the story of Addie, a Madam in a small whorehouse in Nalgitas who meets a woman named Emma on the train. Emma seems a pathetic creature, about to marry a man she has never seen before. Although Addie's life has not been without hardships she has not lost her kindness and when Emma is dumped by her future husband she takes her into her home. The tale gets more complicated but I would not like to add a thing so as not to ruin the reader's enjoyment (several reviewing comments I read in the beginning of the book were enough to ruin some of the pleasure for me) .
My copy ends with a list of questions for Reading Groups - among them the question "which character did you most want to find peace and happiness?" this question, so I feel, touches the main flaw of this book. Dallas herself seems to like her characters too much and wants them all to find "peace and happiness". This is evident in the human, kind portrayal of all her four characters but is also the problem of this book as this is not always the way life works.
Full of charm and understanding of human nature.

Im not much of a fan of the Western genre and under normal circumstances wouldnt have bought this particular title had I had any real time to think about it. However, I ran out of reading material thanks to several seriously delayed flights and had to grab something on the run at IAH and this was the most likely thing immediately available.

I still probably wont be much into Westerns but I certainly expect to give Miss Dallas another look. The Chili Queen is a book that completelyand very pleasantlysurprised me.

The book works on several levels. The characters are thoroughly and affectionately drawn, Miss Dallas has an engaging and absorbing writing voice andmost unexpectedlya wickedly complex and deceptive sense of narrative and plotting.

Although ostensibly a western, the Chili Queen slowly but surely devolves into a bit of a psychological thriller cum detective novel while maintaining its western character and setting. This evolution into the thriller realm is deftly and skillfully managed is such a way that one is as surprised by many of the turn of events as are the characterswhich is the way a thriller is supposed to work.

The end result is a book of many facets, colors and subtle complexity that far outstrips the dynamics and construction of what I think of as the prototypical western novel.

This is an excellent novel that would appeal to a very wide audience. I can heartily recommend it.

While I like most of Sandra Dallas' books - generally historical fiction set in a variety of periods and places - I thought this one was sort of lacking her usual charisma. I have to admit, this story about a whorehouse madam in 1880s Arizona, her bank-robber boyfriend, and a mail-order bride who latches onto them after her groom rejects her is well-written -- none of the characters are who they appear to be, and the ending totally had me going, "WOW! Never would've suspected THAT..." But after I finished, I was also just left with a sense of...eh.