11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Fun!, November 30, 2005
This review is from: Who Gets the Apartment? (Tales from the Back Page) (Paperback)
I heard about this book through a mystery lover's discussion group. I loved it! Four people in NYC (a book editor, a district attorney, an artist, and a computer guy) are desperate for a decent apartment. They answer an ad in a newspaper that is similar to the Village Voice, listing a Central Park penthouse for $600/month. (If anyone reading this lives in the NYC area, you know how impossible that is....) A swindler (who it turns out has a grudge against the apartment's owner) rents the apartment to the four of them then flees town with their money. On move-in day, as each of them shows up with their furniture, they realize they've been taken for a ride. Now that they're penniless (which, again, I can relate to, as paying the security deposit on an apartment basically bankrupts you for months), they have to figure out which one of them actually gets the apartment.
And that's where the fun begins. This is basically two books in one. In the first part, we get four alternate endings and have to figure out which one really happened. My favorites of those two were the "contest" (where things get really back-biting and nasty) and the "united we stand" part, where the apartment dwellers realize they're better off banding together than plunging knives into each others' backs. In the second part, we get a sort of sequel where the four friends (now two couples, as romance has blossomed) are enlisted to help a friend who's been the victim of corporate America. And who doesn't have a friend in THAT situation these days?
I also loved all the insider scoop on the publishing industry. Who knew that publishing houses have terrible managers, just like the rest of us? I can't help but think the author is parodying the industry a little while at the same time really respecting it.
I couldn't put this book down. The cover says "A novel of suspense," and that's exactly what it is. You keep saying, "one more chapter," and before you know it, it's 2 a.m. and you're still reading. Rigolosi has a really light touch as a writer -- likable characters (well, for most of the book anyway--to say more would be a spoiler), wry sense of humor, and a sense of poetic justice. Based on what it says in the book, this is the first book in a new series, and I have to say I'm looking forward to the next ones.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Don't Start This Book..., December 6, 2005
This review is from: Who Gets the Apartment? (Tales from the Back Page) (Paperback)
...unless you have the time to read it all at once! I started it on a Friday night when I had nothing to do, and didn't go to bed until 6 a.m. on Saturday morning when I turned the last page. This book was so entertaining and fun, and by the time it was over I felt like the characters were old friends. I loved Corinne and Oliver but woof! the chemistry between Venice and Ian was even more terrific. I guess opposites do attract, the tough NYC prosecutor (Venice) and the sensitive artist (Ian). Who Gets the Apartment? is like ice cream, you just want to eat the whole half gallon before you'll be satisfied. You just can't put it down, and you don't want to! I recommend it highly to everyone. (P.S. It was nice to have good old-fashioned romance and no sex. Very sweet in a way.) I liked the way the book had that tough NY edge to it, but underneath there is a gentle idealism that made me cry on the last page.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Upbeat and Optimistic, February 5, 2007
This review is from: Who Gets the Apartment? (Tales from the Back Page) (Paperback)
Sometimes you just need a little comfort food, and this book is it - a fictional world that resembles our own, but one in which good triumphs, people fall in love, bad people get their just desserts, and the last page of the book makes you sigh with contentment and makes you sorry that you don't have more friends like the main characters. This author has an ingenious imagination and doesn't really play by the rules of the traditional mystery - this is a book without murder, violence, or depravity, which perhaps make it unrealistic but no less charming.
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