Queenpin

April 30, 2007
Edgar-finalist Abbott (Die a Little) delivers a sharp, slender, hardboiled tale of a protégé’s schooling by a notorious, been-there-done-that moll. The first time the unnamed 22-year-old female narrator lays eyes on Gloria Denton, her first thought is “I want the legs.” The setting is the Club Tee Hee, an indeterminate Las Vegas–L.A. nowhere where “the kid” is doing the mobbed-up books, and Gloria comes in every few weeks to count “Jerome’s vig.” The kid absorbs very entertaining lessons in how to dress, move, behave, and how to pick up, transport and distribute payoffs and winnings—until she falls for sweet-talking gambler Vic Riordan. Abbott is pitch-perfect throughout: Gloria Denton, still turning heads in her 40s, is as hard a moll as any, and the kid is a beautiful combination of foil and tool as she strives to emulate her role model. The collision, violent and inevitable, rips away the facade of glitz and glamour, and leaves their low-end edifice starkly exposed.

Starred review from May 15, 2007
See that dame in the Orlon sweater sitting at that metal desk over there, cooking the books for Club Tee-Hee? What's she really want? It turns out the answer provided in Abbott's noir homage is "More." Yeah, that's it: more. To get what she wants, she's more than willing to serve as gofer to the legendary Gloria Dentone, who's notable in the local rackets. At the same time, she also craves the attention of a two-bit, albeit attractive gambler with a flashing smile, pipe dreams, and bright eyes fixed forever on the fading horizon. When these twin attractions inevitably collide, only the very strong can possibly survive. Nominated for Edgar, Anthony, and Barry Awards for her debut, Die a Little, Abbott dishes up in her third novel stiletto heels, pointed, deadly, and good over small distances, leaving readers looking for more. This is All About Eve pulped to a fare-thee-well la Jim Thomson. For all public libraries.Bob Lunn, Kansas City P.L., MO

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