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Rating: 
Summary: fun read
Review: A delightful mystery with lots of subtle humor. Loved it. When i finished it, i was glad to know that more were coming soon
Rating:
Summary: fun read
Review: A delightful mystery with lots of subtle humor. Loved it. When i finished it, i was glad to know that more were coming soon
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: Anne Seale spends half the year in an RV park in Arizona and half the year in New York, and she uses these backgrounds and all the settings inbetween for this romp across America. Her main character, Jo Jacuzzo, is a delightful 28-year-old working class butch who finds herself doing a favor for a gorgeous blonde femme from an elite background who is a purveyor of fine art, and who is also in deep trouble. Jo's even dying her hair red and painting her nails and toenails and wearing a miniskirt at one point as she too tries to outrun the trouble. Seale, who previously was known primarily for her lesbian feminist songs, performed on her comedy tape, "Sex for Breakfast," and at many lesbian events across the country, breaks into a new genre as if she were born to it. I picked up the book when I got home and didn't put it down until 3 am when I finished it. The plot twists flow fast and easily, and Seale's humor underlies even the serious moments of this fun read. She deftly brings in some political points about the problems of Mexicans attempting to cross the border illegally into the U.S. for economic survival, and both those who support and who bitterly oppose them--but her message is not at all heavy-handed. I am eagerly looking forward to Seale's next book in the series. Jo still has to pack Mrs. Phipps, and from the looks of it, that still isn't going to be an easy job.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: Anne Seale spends half the year in an RV park in Arizona and half the year in New York, and she uses these backgrounds and all the settings inbetween for this romp across America. Her main character, Jo Jacuzzo, is a delightful 28-year-old working class butch who finds herself doing a favor for a gorgeous blonde femme from an elite background who is a purveyor of fine art, and who is also in deep trouble. Jo's even dying her hair red and painting her nails and toenails and wearing a miniskirt at one point as she too tries to outrun the trouble. Seale, who previously was known primarily for her lesbian feminist songs, performed on her comedy tape, "Sex for Breakfast," and at many lesbian events across the country, breaks into a new genre as if she were born to it. I picked up the book when I got home and didn't put it down until 3 am when I finished it. The plot twists flow fast and easily, and Seale's humor underlies even the serious moments of this fun read. She deftly brings in some political points about the problems of Mexicans attempting to cross the border illegally into the U.S. for economic survival, and both those who support and who bitterly oppose them--but her message is not at all heavy-handed. I am eagerly looking forward to Seale's next book in the series. Jo still has to pack Mrs. Phipps, and from the looks of it, that still isn't going to be an easy job.
Rating:
Summary: A cross-country delight
Review: First, take a bright, funny [homosexual] of a gal driving down across the Mason-Dixon Line, add a dash of danger & a pinch of passion...stir smoothly and prepare to be awake tonight enjoying a can't-put-down tale of mystery & more than a bit of madness. It may prove that "no good deed goes unpunished", but it left me wanting more of Jo's adventures & mysteries. Please, Anne-do it again soon?
Rating:
Summary: A cross-country delight
Review: Taking us traveling with heroine Jo Jacuzzo, Seale's novel is quirky and absolutely rivieting. The reader wonders how Jacuzzo will get out of her present scrape and where will she find herself next. Answers quickly follow questions except one. When can we travel with Jacuzzo again?
Rating:
Summary: Seale makes a dashing debut.
Review: Taking us traveling with heroine Jo Jacuzzo, Seale's novel is quirky and absolutely rivieting. The reader wonders how Jacuzzo will get out of her present scrape and where will she find herself next. Answers quickly follow questions except one. When can we travel with Jacuzzo again?
Rating: 
Summary: Charming Dyke makes wonderful Reluctant Detective
Review: This first novel from Anne Seale introduces readers to a new lesbian mystery series. Jo Jacuzzo, a 27-year-old, shy, intelligent (if not the most educated), softhearted butch finds herself thrown into a series of unexpected, complicated, and even life-threatening events. Jo's first person narrative is often amusing and her view of the world has a sweet, almost childlike innocence that is charming without being saccharine. While touchingly neurotic and somewhat naive, Jo is also loyal and a bit stubborn with a definite moral core. Until the last few weeks, Jo has worked as a homecare-nursing aide. However, an accusation and complaint from the family of one of her clients has resulted in unemployment for Jo. Although she still lives with her mother and her mother's partner, Rose, Jo has been paying her part of the household expenses for years and her unemployment is a hardship for all. Soon her mother pushes Jo to accept a temporary job. That "errand" is to go to Tampa, Florida, and help pack up the snowbird mother of a friend for her summer return to Buffalo. Of this mother-daughter talk, Jo comments, "I knew I was in for a deep discussion. [Mom]'d said, "So, Jo" when explaining what Kotex was for and before telling me that Daddy had left us, among other depressing things. (Having Daddy leave was depressing only because we didn't leave him first.)" p9 The road trip begins safely enough. Jo stops to visit her Uncle Dom in Cincinnati to help him with some chores. She gets the low-down on him from the neighborhood kids including, "The best bit, however, was that he pushed an evangelist off his porch last year and had to do community service. That's my family, heathenish to a fault." p15 When Jo's beloved Toyota truck has a break down in rural Georgia, she finds herself accepting a detour to Arizona to help the beautiful if enigmatic heiress, Charity Redmun, drive a motor home across country. The complications from here on are exponential. Packing Mrs. Phipps is a very funny novel and Jo's observations are wonderfully droll at times. For example, this exchange with a woman who befriends Jo: "I guess people name their kids Faith and Hope, so why not [Charity]? Sonny and Cher even named their daughter Chastity. How'd you like to go though life with a name like that? What guy would want to have sex with a girl called Chastity?" [Jo's response] "I'm guessing that doesn't bother her too much." p184 The mystery's plot has several unexpected twists, not the least of which is Jo deciding to go undercover to try to find a killer, and dressing as a high femme named "Sheridan" to infiltrate a right-wing militia group near the Mexican Border. Few things are quite as they appear to be in this suspenseful little tale. There are one or two incongruencies uncaught in the editing process -- like the change of a meeting time from afternoon to morning within three pages and without the implied change of that time. -- Nevertheless, Jo Jacuzzo is one of most charming reluctant detectives since Sarah Dreher's Stoner McTavish series. This entertaining and promising first novel will have this reader looking for Jo's future adventures.
Rating:
Summary: Charming Dyke makes wonderful Reluctant Detective
Review: This first novel from Anne Seale introduces readers to a new lesbian mystery series. Jo Jacuzzo, a 27-year-old, shy, intelligent (if not the most educated), softhearted butch finds herself thrown into a series of unexpected, complicated, and even life-threatening events. Jo's first person narrative is often amusing and her view of the world has a sweet, almost childlike innocence that is charming without being saccharine. While touchingly neurotic and somewhat naive, Jo is also loyal and a bit stubborn with a definite moral core. Until the last few weeks, Jo has worked as a homecare-nursing aide. However, an accusation and complaint from the family of one of her clients has resulted in unemployment for Jo. Although she still lives with her mother and her mother's partner, Rose, Jo has been paying her part of the household expenses for years and her unemployment is a hardship for all. Soon her mother pushes Jo to accept a temporary job. That "errand" is to go to Tampa, Florida, and help pack up the snowbird mother of a friend for her summer return to Buffalo. Of this mother-daughter talk, Jo comments, "I knew I was in for a deep discussion. [Mom]'d said, "So, Jo" when explaining what Kotex was for and before telling me that Daddy had left us, among other depressing things. (Having Daddy leave was depressing only because we didn't leave him first.)" p9 The road trip begins safely enough. Jo stops to visit her Uncle Dom in Cincinnati to help him with some chores. She gets the low-down on him from the neighborhood kids including, "The best bit, however, was that he pushed an evangelist off his porch last year and had to do community service. That's my family, heathenish to a fault." p15 When Jo's beloved Toyota truck has a break down in rural Georgia, she finds herself accepting a detour to Arizona to help the beautiful if enigmatic heiress, Charity Redmun, drive a motor home across country. The complications from here on are exponential. Packing Mrs. Phipps is a very funny novel and Jo's observations are wonderfully droll at times. For example, this exchange with a woman who befriends Jo: "I guess people name their kids Faith and Hope, so why not [Charity]? Sonny and Cher even named their daughter Chastity. How'd you like to go though life with a name like that? What guy would want to have sex with a girl called Chastity?" [Jo's response] "I'm guessing that doesn't bother her too much." p184 The mystery's plot has several unexpected twists, not the least of which is Jo deciding to go undercover to try to find a killer, and dressing as a high femme named "Sheridan" to infiltrate a right-wing militia group near the Mexican Border. Few things are quite as they appear to be in this suspenseful little tale. There are one or two incongruencies uncaught in the editing process -- like the change of a meeting time from afternoon to morning within three pages and without the implied change of that time. -- Nevertheless, Jo Jacuzzo is one of most charming reluctant detectives since Sarah Dreher's Stoner McTavish series. This entertaining and promising first novel will have this reader looking for Jo's future adventures.
Rating:
Summary: What a fun book.
Review: What a fun book. I could hardly put it down for wanting to know what pickle Jo was going to get herself into next. I can hardly wait for the next book to come out so I can see what Jo will do next. The only disappointment to this book is realizing you reached the end and then you want to read it again. It is well written and it takes you right into the character. What a talented writer with a gift for twists and humor. LOVE IT!!!
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