Lucky Stiff : A Lillian Byrd Crime Story

Rating:
Summary: Elizabeth Sims Does It Again
Review: I admit it: I'm in love with Lillian Byrd, the appealing, self-effacing heroine of `Lucky Stiff'. I started my crush when I read `Holy Hell' and totally fell for her when I read the Lambda Award winner, `Damn Straight'. I've been impatiently waiting for this third in the series. And it's the best yet.

In `Lucky Stiff' Lillian solves a mystery from her own past. It starts when she meets up with a childhood friend. Lillian and Duane had been close because they recognized that they were different from other kids. Comparing memories, they discover a strange thread that links them in a way they never dreamed. From that moment until the surprise ending, the pace never lets up. Elizabeth Sims' excellent and subtle writing often makes me laugh out loud and sometimes makes me shout, "Right on!"
The characters (new and old) are so real you expect to run into them sometime. It's especially fun to find Minerva LeBlanc is back in Lillian's life!
I'm also from Detroit (the setting for much of the story) and Sims' lucid evocation of her native city knocks me out.

If you enjoy a good story and excellent writing, don't miss this book!


Rating:
Summary: Best Lillian Byrd Crime Story Yet!
Review: I didn't think it could get any better than Sims's Lambda Literary Award-winning DAMN STRAIGHT, but I was dead wrong. This book explores the mind and heart of Lillian through and through and provides an action-packed mystery to boot. It was especially wonderful to see the return of the intriguing Minerva LeBlanc (who first appeared in HOLY HELL). Five GIANT STARS for Sims's best page-turner to date. Keep 'em coming!

Rating:
Summary: Reader from Florida
Review: Lucky Stiff is definitely the best of the Lillian Byrd series so far. The writing really snaps as the main character Lillian Byrd narrates with wit and precision. Sims digs a bit deeper into Lillian's personality and background in this one. The story is rather dark, with Lillian investigating the long-ago deaths of her parents in a bar fire. Sims does a good job making you feel the creepiness of old autopsy reports, the uneasiness of a jaunt through the aging neighborhood where she notices old scorch marks on the trees near the building that burned, and the off-kilter rationalizations of a battered wife who finally gets even. There's a subplot involving music improvisation, and another one involving the true-crime writer Minerva LeBlanc, who comes sexily back into Lillian's life to help--and to add a distressing twist. All the characters are convincing and unusual, like Lillian's childhood friend Duane, with whom she joins forces to try to solve the mystery, and a Buddha-like street musician named Blind Lonnie. Sims also does very well developing the character of Trix, the trash-talking barmaid. And as always, Todd the rabbit is charming. Oh, I almost forgot: Lillian is into reading a pulpy mystery series starring a supersleuth named Calico Jones, and her breathless accounts of Calico's adventures are hilarious. In general the humor in this book is a little more subtle than in the prior two, and perhaps more enjoyable because of it.

Rating:
Summary: disappointed
Review: Somewhere along the line Lillian Byrd seems to have lost most of her sense of humor. One of the things I enjoyed about the first two books is that Lil didn't seem to take herself too seriously.
Although the book is well-written, it is not one I recommend strongly.