Secrets of a Shoe Addict

A trip to Las Vegas to chaperone the school band lands three suburban housewives in scalding water. Abbey, Loreen, and Tiffany each find that their indiscretions refuse to stay in Vegas, and reparations must be made in Maryland. Orlagh Cassidy's bright, youthful voice trips lightly through the story, giving each woman a clear identity through nuanced vocal modulation and tonal variation. Her pacing maximizes the comic timing provided in the text. Cassidy shifts gears seamlessly to render more tender moments and brings an edge of sharpness when Abbey's family faces a thug's threats and when Tiffany's husband crosses the line from boorishness to emotional abuse. Despite the lightness of the plot, we hate to hear the story end. R.L.L. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

March 31, 2008
Harbison's witty, fast-paced follow-up to last year's Shoe Addicts Anonymous
chronicles the foibles of four women brought together by—in this case—not shoes but debt. During a fateful trip to Las Vegas as chaperones of a school band trip, Loreen Murphy accidentally hires a male prostitute on the PTA credit card; pastor's-wife-with-a-past Abbey Walsh gets blackmailed by an ex-con ex-boyfriend; and usually restrained PTA president Tiffany Dreyer purchases thousands of dollars worth of clothes that she can't return. Enter the zaftig Sandra Vanderslice, who, before she started her shoe-importing business, made a living as a phone sex operator. She suggests her sister, Tiffany, hop on that gravy train to pay down her credit card bills. Loreen and Abbey join up, and soon the ladies are raking in dough and trying to hide their new source of income from husbands, kids and their snoopy nemesis, the cartoonishly judgmental Deb Leventer, who wants to take over the PTA. Harbison's writing is zingy and funny, and her light touch allows her to get away with the ridiculous situations in this nutty beach read.

Starred review from November 24, 2008
This tale of four housewives who run up unexpected debt and become phone-sex operators to pay it off is a perfect fit for audio. Orlagh Cassidy milks the comedy to the hilt, especially during the phone-sex calls, when she alternates her voice between the gutteral men who call, the seductive purring tone of Tiffany and Loreen as they coo come-ons, and their actual inner thoughts during the call, which are eye-rolling and sardonically amused as they think about the ridiculousness of their conversations. Among the audio's many laugh-out-loud sequences: shy Abby's awkward, stammering attempts at the sexy calls, and the time one of the women gets caught up in her phone role only to have her daughter come home from school early. Cassidy's timing and delivery are perfect, making this audio even more fun than the print version. A St. Martin's hardcover (Reviews, Mar. 31).