All That Glitters Isn't Gold

November 15, 2013
Turner packs a lot of story into the long-awaited sequel to The Glamorous Life (2005). This edgy urban saga revisits wife and husband Bambi and Lynx from the first installment as they cross tragic paths with Calliope and her younger brother, Compton. After the siblings are abandoned by their abusive mother and placed with neglectful relatives, they head out on their own and soon find themselves entering difficult adulthoods within a world of crime. Calliope seeks protection for her and Compton by helping the police, but they both end up involved in selling drugs, and, worse yet, Calliope ends up messing around with Lynx. In danger, she turns to Bambi, only to discover that she and her child are also imperiled. Tragedy and pain drive this roller coaster of a book, but Calliope and Bambi's resilience is appealing, and Turner's raw writing makes for page-turning suspense and infuses feeling into the gritty scenes and dialogue. Urban-fiction fans will crave this novel and all of Turner's titles.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)