Unorthodox Practices (Nina Fischman) [Paperback]

Marissa Piesman (Author)

Book Description

Series: Nina Fischman | Publication Date: October 15, 2005

Think the real-estate market is a current craze? Welcome to New York in the 1980s, where “the best thing about being obsessed with real estate” is that, as a conversational topic, “you can count on it to just naturally arise about every ten minutes.” Nina Fischman mostly opts out of those conversations: She’s too busy running down to Housing Court on behalf of her “poverty law” clients, and tracking down sales on sweaters that camouflage the hips. But Nina’s mother, Ida, has a nose for the market, and that nose gets twitchy when old ladies in her neighborhood start dying, leaving apartments that have miraculously escaped what New Yorkers delicately call “the cockroach problem.” Over a nice snack of low-fat cottage cheese, she nags Nina into snooping around. And Nina is soon forced, reluctantly, to agree with her mother: Somebody’s making a killing in real estate.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A hilarious mystery ... funnier than the ads in the Sunday Real Estate section” --New York Times Book Review

"If you crave a charismatic heroine with a touch of Yiddishkeit, pray for Marissa Piesman's return" --Kirkus

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Felony & Mayhem (October 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933397195
• ISBN-13: 978-1933397191
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,141,417 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars At times repulsive,but..., July 17, 2011

By 

Richard Locke Peterson (Sacramento, California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Unorthodox Practices (Nina Fischman) (Paperback)

Nina is the amateur detective spoiled brat protagonist. She's a poverty law
lawyer, but she doesn't care about her impoverished clients...her colleague/boyfriend
does give a hang, but at novel's end, when she does finally getting interested in her clients, she blames his sincerity for her previous jadedness...Nina cares about her looks and her I.Q. She's selfish and obnoxious.--Why haven't I said anything about the mystery, you ask? What mystery? There are crimes, and for no particular reason besides mystery novel format's sake, culprits are found. The suspense did not kill me.
To the book's credit, there is snappy writing, and I think the author well portrayed(either gutsily or unintentionally) the worst of herself, as Nina Fischman, and maybe Nina is changing towards the end.