Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Tex-Mex Murder Mystery, November 26, 2006
"She closed her eyes and escaped into a Dali-like surrealistic painting, a purple and green sun, a clock melting into the steel table where she lay wearing the starving-artist painting's little Mexican girl's peasant clothes and tiara and Cinderella's glass slippers. Stems and petals from Texas bluebonnets and Indian paint brush were scattered about." ~ pg. 149
Overwhelmed by duty, Assistant District Attorney Virginia Rodriguez takes on even more than she can handle. With romantic misunderstandings at work, a son trying to get ready for the prom and her most pressing desire, a hot bath in complete silence with a bowl of chocolate ice cream, her life begins to unfold within a mystery murder and renewed expectations.
L.B. Cobb weaves a story of intrigue with Tex-Mex flavor, realistic human emotions and wry humor. Her writing style is refreshingly unique, draws on local flavor and captures the essence of what it means to be human within an ever-changing world. There are always interesting twists in the plot and she never gives the answers to questions before the time is perfectly right and is always ready to throw you another surprise.
Who murdered a federal prosecutor at a Bayou City hotel and why is his wife being charged with the murder? As the truth remains elusive, Virginia struggles through emotional complexity under the demands of a stressful work environment. Will the man she thinks betrayed her, become her comfort?
If L.B. is writing, I'll be reading! She gets into her character's minds and reveals interesting details as if she truly could hear what they were thinking. She is also the author of Old Fashioned Recipes for Modern Cooks and the memorable story Splendor Bay. Her experience with cooking infuses her books with the delicious scents of culinary favorites and things any woman can relate to, like hiding chocolate ice cream in the back of the freezer.
~The Rebecca Review
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Talk about women who have it all until it almost kills them, March 4, 2003
Advance Books is a traditional independent press, which produces quality books geared towards a modern world full of diversity, baby boomers, and older readers. L.B. Cobb is herself an attorney, and is a product of a Tennessee upbringing. Now a resident of Houston, LB Cobb follows up her first novel, Splendor Bay.Talk about women who have it all until it almost kills them, and you'll find Virginia Rodriguez. As a prosecutor for the DA's office, Virginia works nonstop while she manages to bring up her son, Nick, and try to remember to let the dog, Denver, in and fill its food dish. In the meantime, there has been a murder committed of a powerful federal prosecutor, and his wife is found in the hotel room with a gun in her hand. Is she guilty? Virginia thinks at first this will be an open-and-shut case. Enter Leo Zachmann, a defense lawyer of some repute and intelligence, who can see from the start that the case doesn't add up. He's been hired by a gruff voice calling almost immediately after the murder was committed: "'Why, Virginia, I see blinking cop cars and rowdy reporters and I just have to see if there's paying work I can hustle up,' Leo dead panned. 'You know how testy the state bar gets when you send runners in to sign up clients, so I like to do the signing up myself.' 'Right. I was told Mrs. Fullerton hasn't said a word, but it looks like she managed to sneak a call to a lawyer.' Leo and his wife, Miranda, also a lawyer, manage to dig up enough dirt to indicate that "some other dude did it." Indeed, the absence of evidence is in itself fishy and causes Leo to latch on to another line of inquiry...of the feds. In the meantime, Virginia's case dissolves as Leo's case widens. Virginia has yet another issue begging for attention, a budding relationship. Promises Town is a splendid follow-up to Cobb's debut novel. Her characters are chiseled out of the Texas landscape; politics; and Virginia's sometimes bitchy, but mostly likable, character. Shelley Glodowski
Senior Reviewer
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Delicious feast of romance, intrigue and murder, November 11, 2002
PROMISES TOWN introduces saucy Assistant District Attorney Virginia Rodriquez in the case of a murdered federal prosecutor. When Virginia arrives at the murder scene in a posh Bayou City, Texas hotel room, the federal prosecutor's wife has been found with the gun, he and a lover have been found dead in bed together, the motive is obvious, and the wife has been arrested. It looks like a slam-dunk case to Virginia. Enter Leo Zachmann, a shrewd high-profile defense attorney who challenges Virginia to look deeper into the facts -- facts that don't seem to add up to the wife being the murderer. As Virginia and police detective named Smitty delve into the inconsistencies, they come to realize that maybe the wife has been set up, but by then a dismissal of the charges isn't that simple. Powerful people, including a man from Virginia's past, want a quick prosecution and conviction . At the same time, Zachmann and his staff are conducting their own investigation which indicates there's a political conspiracy behind the murders. The story is masterfully told from a point-counterpoint perspective, interweaving the prosecution and defense point of view as Cobb takes the readers through a criminal investigation, into the courtroom, and then on to the unexpected ending. As in L.B. Cobb's debut novel, SPLENDOR BAY, twists, turns, and action keep the pages of PROMISES TOWN turning. It's also filled with deliciously complex relationships, suspense, humor, and some very memorable characters. I'll eager to read more about Virginia and Leo.
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