Customer Reviews

Nice Girls Finish Last (A Robin Hudson Mystery)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Some time back, someone recommended Sparkle Hayter to me as an author. She writes in the female amateur detective genre, much like Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. I was low on recreational reading material, so I picked up Nice Girls Finish Last. I think I've found another favorite author...

The main protagonist in this series is Robin Hudson. She's a reporter for a large news network, and she's part of the "Special Reports" division. That would be the group that does stories on alien abductions and stuff. She's not thrilled with this assignment, but she's stuck with it. A doctor in her work building is found murdered, and it looks like there might be an element of S&M involved. The news editor wants Hudson to package the story as an S&M killing, even though she thinks it might have nothing to do with that. She starts investigating on her own, but unfortunately all the guys in her work and personal life are also getting shot at (she was supposed to have an appointment with the doctor that got killed later that evening). The police see her as the common thread, but she can't figure out why for the life of her. And it might be a short life if she can't get it solved quickly...

The character is single and cynical, loves the big city and her job, but hates her boss. A real modern woman. The dialogue and writing is sharp and witty, and I got into the story and the characters pretty easily. The book is pretty short, so it's not much of a time investment to read. Well worth picking up if you want to indulge your "guilty pleasures"... :-)

I love Robin Hudson. She's beautiful, quirky and red-headed to boot. She's got an exciting life and has such original ideas...like planting poison ivy in all of her window boxes to make anyone who breaks in easy to identify or using a spray glue gun as a weapon of choice (not to mention the epilady!) Her family members are not unlike my own, particularly Aunt Mo.

I adored the fast-paced, unusual, hilarious S&M plot. Ms. Hayter's talent with wisecracks and word play is priceless. The description of Robin's evil neighbor's robe as 'looking like it was made from teddy bear pelts' had me rolling! What a fabulous description! It's worth buying this book just to get to know the unique characters. Thanks for a super read, Ms. Hayter. Keep 'em coming!

Every once in a blue moon an author like this comes around, and I'm thankful it is blue moon time. This is the first book by Sparkle Hayter (love the name) that I have laughed my way through, but it will not be the last.

Robin is the perfect woman of the 90's. She faces her problems with her new positive attitude and her weapons of choice - an epilady and poison ivy. The mystery is interesting, the humor superb and Sparkle a keeper.

Erma Arthur, Reading Forum Assistant, MSN

A surprisingly complex book that uses farce to explore the conflicting desires to be a 'good girl' and make nice, and to fight back. Nobody does these conflicts better, or funnier, than Hayter. How does a girl keep control when chaos erupts around her? Does a whip help? Laugh out loud funny, leaving a lot to think about later.

This is just a great comic mystery. I loved it

I received this book in a book exchange and it looked like it would be fun to read. It was. I enjoyed Robin Hudson, her friends, even her aunt. This book had me smiling and laughing at times.

This is a very enjoyable book.

I plan to read more of the books in this series.

I had never heard of Sparkle Hayter or Robin Hudson when I picked this book up at my favorite neighborhood cappuccino bar/book store. I am glad I have.
Preliminary Warning: this book is a mindless read, but hilariously so. In the book's back cover mention is made that Ms. Hayter does stand up. If she brings the same clever, witty and sarcastic approach to life that peppers this book to the mike, I envy her audiences. As an over-the-hill TV reporter hanging on to a career, heroine Robin Hudson is the post-modern, gen X woman. She faces adversity with Positive Mental Attitude and is there ever a need for it. Her gynecologist is murdered in his office. Conveniently, the dead man's office and ANN, the All News Network, share the same building, where Robin works and generally agonizes. During the course of the investigation, a sniper randomly shoots and misses some of the staff members.
The novel, ostensibly a mystery whodunnit involving S&M, is really a parade of the assorted personalities that make up the ANN news team, a couple of local cops and caricatures of the S&M scene. Hayter's breezy and sometimes suprisingly insightful observations about aging, necrotic facitis, dating, mean-spirited bosses, neurotic TV reporter/personalities, the streets of New York and her fundamentalist aunt kept me turning the pages. Sarcastic but seldom mean-spirited the one-liners had me laughing out loud.
The novel between comic asides keeps a running commentary on the clues and the suspects; there are no red-herrings in the traditional sense of the word, and the "mystery" solves itself. Sorry, this is not Hammet or Conan Doyle. This is the serio-comical life of a 37 year old urban woman. However, do not feel cheated. Umberto Eco used this same whodunnit technique in _The Name of the Rose_ to introduce and spoon-feed readers the heresies prevailing in 13th century Christianity. And Hayter dazzles and entertains not with her scholarship but with her gutsy and positive attitude that helps her survive the crazy streets of New York. Although her comment on one-book faith versus a cobbled philosopy from life experiences gives one a point or two to ponder. Confession and final comment: as a male I sure wish I had read this book in high school or college. I believe I would have understood women a little more, or as well as any male can ever understand the opposite sex.

I had never heard of Sparkle Hayter or Robin Hudson when I picked this book up at my favorite neighborhood cappuccino bar/book store. I am glad I have.
Preliminary Warning: this book is a mindless read, but hilariously so. In the book's back cover mention is made that Ms. Hayter does stand up. If she brings the same clever, witty and sarcastic approach to life that peppers this book to the mike, I envy her audiences. As an over-the-hill TV reporter hanging on to a career, heroine Robin Hudson is the post-modern, gen X woman. She faces adversity with Positive Mental Attitude and is there ever a need for it. Her gynecologist is murdered in his office. Conveniently, the dead man's office and ANN, the All News Network, share the same building, where Robin works and generally agonizes. During the course of the investigation, a sniper randomly shoots and misses some of the staff members.
The novel, ostensibly a mystery whodunnit involving S&M, is really a parade of the assorted personalities that make up the ANN news team, a couple of local cops and caricatures of the S&M scene. Hayter's breezy and sometimes suprisingly insightful observations about aging, necrotic facitis, dating, mean-spirited bosses, neurotic TV reporter/personalities, the streets of New York and her fundamentalist aunt kept me turning the pages. Sarcastic but seldom mean-spirited the one-liners had me laughing out loud.
The novel between comic asides keeps a running commentary on the clues and the suspects; there are no red-herrings in the traditional sense of the word, and the "mystery" solves itself. Sorry, this is not Hammet or Conan Doyle. This is the serio-comical life of a 37 year old urban woman. However, do not feel cheated. Umberto Eco used this same whodunnit technique in _The Name of the Rose_ to introduce and spoon-feed readers the heresies prevailing in 13th century Christianity. And Hayter dazzles and entertains not with her scholarship but with her gutsy and positive attitude that helps her survive the crazy streets of New York. Although her comment on one-book faith versus a cobbled philosopy from life experiences gives one a point or two to ponder. Confession and final comment: as a male I sure wish I had read this book in high school or college. I believe I would have understood women a little more, or as well as any male can ever understand the opposite sex.

If you don't like funny mysteries with female protagonists you won't enjoy this one. I do (like) and did (enjoy). It's set in Manhattan with the narrator working in TV. She's something of a Bridget Jones character. Maybe there's symbolism in the S and M stuff, with the heroine having problems at work about being assertive or passive in a male-dominated world but mostly it's just funny with an ingenious and suspensful plot. Not quite as good as Janet Evanovich but almost there.

S&M domintarixes, slaves, bible-thumpers, corporate cutbacks, masochistic stalkers, dead bodies and a bewildered turtle make it hard for Robin Hudson to maintain a "Positive Mental Attitude," during ANN's downsizing. A must for anyone whose company is downsizing. How Robin endures all these things which cleverly come together at the end, to find her own kind of positive attitude is a trick, and a treat.