Customer Reviews

Too Rich and Too Thin, Not an an Autobiography

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This book kept me crazy because I did not want to put it down. It is funny to the point of hilarious (I can totally see this as a movie someday!), and yet quite a crazy mix of intrigue and pieces of Texas philsophy(eclectic Austin in particular) . I'm wondering if it IS a biography....it all sounds so Real....Barbara DeShong is certainly going to be one of my Favorite writers! I look forward to More of her books.

Toni Bailey
Oklahoma

Meet Dr Jessica LaFave, Texas psychologist, police profiler and recent widow. Dr LaFave is excited: the murder of one of her husband's eccentric patients gives her an opportunity to search for her husband's killer. While everyone else believes that the death of psychiatrist Dr David LaFave was an accident, Jessica believes that it was murder and that it is linked to one of her husband's patients. `David's practice was loaded with high-profile Texans packing blackmail-worthy secrets.' So, when Bernice Jackson, rich and famous as a consequence of re-writing historical events into popular novels and movies, and her husband are found dead with their chests carved open. Jessica is sure that somewhere there is a connection between Bernice Jackson's murder and her husband's death.

The dysfunctional Jackson family has its own secrets, and the search for the truth takes Jessica LaFave on a bizarre and action-packed journey. At times the story seems a little too complicated and convoluted and while much of the detail is humorous and relevant in its own way, it can be overwhelming. I mostly enjoyed the over the top humour in this novel: there's no shortage of dysfunctional people with issues and there are plenty of improbable twists and turns in the story. If you can see humour in the ridiculous, then this mystery may be for you. It's fun. Seriously.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Psychologist Jessica LeFave is still mourning the death of her husband, David, a few months earlier and frustrated that the police refuse to believe he was murdered. A chance to prove the truth comes unexpectedly when one of David's patients, (David was a psychiatrist) is murdered along with her husband, Harrell. Jessica thinks the murders are linked to David's death, but finding the truth isn't easy. Jackson offspring, Ruthie and Hank, are terribly messed up adults surrounded by people who may or may not have their best interests at heart. Jessica, however, is desperate and obsessed.

Too Rich & Too Thin takes the reader on a humorous adventure filled with mishaps as Jessica tries to investigate without much support from the police. On a deeper level, author Barbara DeShong explores the pain and anguish of family dysfunction, and the lengths some people will go to gain love, respect, and a positive self-image.

The novel was filled with entertaining, eccentric characters and this whodunit kept me guessing the killer's identity to the end. In hindsight, there were enough carefully plotted clues to have figured it out, but I'm just not much good at this. I loved Jessica and her best friend George, and hope to read about many more of her adventures in the future.

With characters who will stay with you for a long time, DeShong has created a wacky and wonderful mystery. As her first work of fiction, this is writing at its best. The main character leads the reader through a maze of wildly improbable adventures with carefully drawn characters, some of them hopeless basket-cases. Interestingly, even the murder victim is carefully rendered. The humor in the book keeps the reader page-turning, the characters bring Texas to life, and the plot---well, read it yourself. You won't be sorry.

I really enjoyed reading this book. As soon as I was finished I had to lend it to a friend because we have the same taste in books. I love Barbara's ability to paint a character's personality with her words. I hope there are more Jessica LeFave mysteries in the midst.

Not an Autobiography, is the sub title for this novel. Barbara DeShong has written an interesting character in Jessica LeFave. She is a psychologist, mourning the death of her husband, which has been ruled an accident, but she is sure it was murder. As she struggles to find out answers, she is drawn into another murder investigation, the Jacksons, Bernice and her husband are brutally murdered, and Jessica is asked to look into the psychological aspects of the crime.

The Jackson children are a mess, the son and daughter, both adults are a mess, suffering from mental issues that could make them suspect. Bernice has so many enemies, that the list of suspects is long, indeed.

Meth, books, movie making, bikers,a mystic Native American, a giant fat man, and a crazy cast of characters, makes for quite the story.

Bernice (always striving to be richer and thinner than she really is) has written books of the soft core porn variety, using history and molding it to her needs. Making them into movies turns out to be murder!

This book was at times humorous, and always engaging, as Jessica searches for the truth in both cases.

I received this book from Kate at Phenix and Phenix Publicity. Thank you!

Dr. Jessica LaFave is a psychotherapist who normally does a great job of helping the people by profiling killers being sought by the law. But lately, the hard-core cops think she's gone too far and are beginning to doubt her abilities. Her psychotherapist husband was found dead and it was tossed off by the police as a drunken accident, with the added humiliation to Jessica of some items found in his possession that hint of unfaithfulness. But Jessica doesn't doubt her late husband at all and instead believes he knew something from one of his clients that was too dangerous to know and so brought on his own innocent demise.

Now Jessica is asked to help with profiling the killer of Bernice Jackson, an author who turns "sacred" Texas history into racy novels and movies that border on porn. It turns out that Bernice was once a patient of her late husband right around the time of his death. So Jessica now begins probing into Bernice's world, the world of a drugged son frequently humiliated by his father, a daughter who might be called an air-head were it not for her over-eating binges designed to remove her from her dysfunctional family, Jessica's lawyer friend who sticks by her while always threatening to remove himself from her crazed ideas and plots, and more.

The tone is always light and bizarre. The characters are multiple and their conversation frequently meandering into what seems like nowhere but actually makes the reader pay attention to catch the riddle-like sparks of gold that will lead to the eventual capture of the real killer of Bernice Jackson and David LaFave! Definitely a different, novel approach to mysteries!

When psychologist Jessica le Fave's husband is killed in a car accident, the police say it was just that - an accident. But Jessica is convinced her husband was murdered and has been investigating the case on her own. Her husband was a psychiatrist and when one of his patients is brutally murdered, Jessica is convinced it has something to do with her husband's death. Before she knows what is happening, Jessica is involved with a very dysfunctional family, drugs, bikers, Indians, lies, secrets, a crazed killer, and more!

"Too Rich and Too Thin: Not an Autobiography" is an action packed, fast moving, if somewhat convoluted mystery. Author Barbara DeShong gets the action started immediately as the book opens with Jessica helping the police profile the killer of Bernice Jackson and her husband and the action never lets down after that. Jessica is a unique heroine - intent on proving her husband was murdered, even though the evidence points to the contrary. She is intrepid, taking everything in stride as her search for the truth takes her to unexpected and sometimes dangerous places. There is an interesting blend of tension (as Jessica is in danger more than once) and humor (the battle of the pink flamingoes is very funny) throughout the story. DeShong fills the book with interesting, quirky, and sometimes sad characters such as Jessica, Coy Earl Love, Bernice's daughter Ruthie, Ruthie's husband Nigel, Ruthie's ex-husband Joe, and her brother Hank. The book does suffer a bit too much from flashbacks, especially in the first half of the book as DeShong introduces the backgrounds of various characters. However, the mystery is well plotted (if a bit too complicated at times) with a neat twist, and readers will keep trying to guess the identity of the killer.

"Too Rich and Too Thin: Not an Autobiography" is a bit uneven at times, but ultimately is a good mystery.

Barbara DeShong, Ph.D., P.C. is a practicing psychologist, is the author of THE SPECIAL EDUCATOR: STRESS AND SURVIVAL; and is an award-winning public speaker. She was educated at the University of Austin, earning her bachelor's degree and Ph.D. She worked at Austin State Hospital and has had a thriving counseling business for over thirty years. She has also written many articles. TOO RICH & TOO THIN is her first foray into mystery writing.

Dr. Jessica LeFave is an interesting person. She has a successful practice as a psychologist; drives the right car; hangs at the correct country club, and, in general, should be a happy, successful yuppie. But her husband's death a year before cast a shadow over her life that she can't run from. The evidence shows that he committed suicide; had been having an affair; and was not the man she thought he was. She knows better, but can't convince the rest of the world. Then one of his patients is brutally murdered, and the dysfunctional family, mired in the movie and publishing world, leans on her for help:

"That was her word. Sometimes when he was little and started crying, she would make Hank stand naked in the shower for hours with his head under the drip. If I begged, she'd let me sit on the floor and talk to him, and I'd make up stories about a special place where everyone loved everyone else. I called it our 'little blue world'. That way Hank could get his mind off how cold he was. You know the worst part?"

In spite of the dysfunction and murderer swirling around, Dr. Jessica still has to deal with the possible connection between the murder and her husband's death. De Shong is great at creating foibles for the good doc to lean on, like the fake diamonds from her husband's accident scene she carries around in her pocket. There are also a couple of hunks running around to make life more tantalizing; in the form of Don the police chief and an erstwhile lover called Coy Earl. DeShong sprinkles enough humor and zaniness into the mix to keep the reader's attention, even as things get hotter in good old Texas. TOO RICH & TOO THIN reads like a stream of consciousness at times, but it's definitely worthwhile.

Shelley Glodowski
Senior Reviewer

This light-hearted and quirky murder mystery is full of laughs and chuckles. The Flamingo Wars gave me a delightful belly laugh and made me homesick for Texas. Later in the novel, I became lonely for New Mexico. All the way through, I was charmed by amusing characters and entertained by regional decriptions. I appreciate that the author really wanted me to enjoy the experience of reading her book and I did enjoy it immensely.