A feminist lawyer must solve a murder whodunit in Julie Smith's Death Turns a Trick (read an excerpt of the book here).Rebecca Schwartz is a well-bred lawyer in the San Francisco Bay area who tends to bore easily. That boredom leads her to a whorehouse where she is playing the piano for a party when she finds herself in the middle of a police raid. Grabbing the almost naked senator strapped to a bed behind closed doors, she ends up in jail after a fender bender in a borrowed car. Finally freed from her two-hour stay in the slammer, Rebecca goes home looking for some R&R only to find a dead prostitute in her apartment.Still reeling from the shock of that, Rebecca is thrown another surprise when her new boyfriend is arrested for the murder. While she wars with whether or not he might have done it, she continues to look into the case, which also throws her in the path of a studly reporter.This fast-paced first book in the Rebecca Schwartz series flew by. The story has excitement from page one, and even with a heavy dose of background in the first chapters, it's woven in the story's present well enough it did not seem too heavy. At little more than 100 pages, it was easy -- and fast -- to dive into this story, much the way one would get into an episode of Law and Order: SVU. Actually, the plot itself could have been an episode of that show, but this book was written before that show, so it wins.However, just like an episode of SVU, I knew who the murderer and the red herring would be in this story before the victim even dropped dead in Rebecca's apartment. I'm not saying that made this book predictable -- there were twists and turns I did not see coming -- and in all fairness, my siblings and I have watched enough crime shows and read enough mysteries that it usually doesn't take us more than a few minutes to have it solved.Even though I was about 99 percent certain who did and who did not do it early on, the journey in this story was definitely worth the read. Rebecca is a fun and unique protagonist, and her little quirks set her apart from other narrators of mystery novels. In addition, the friendship she forges with an almost madam was something unexpected, even given the name of the book.This story was also well written enough that I found myself not noticing or being bothered by the lack of technology and cell phones, because this book was written in 1992 and recently re-released. That's good story-telling.I enjoyed Rebecca's story, and this exciting read offers a good foundation of a series of more stories to come.Rating: 4 of 5I was given a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. Originally published at www.change-the-word.blogspot.com.
I got this ebook that is the first in a series free on Amazon as part of a Kindle Daily Deal.I get most of my kindle books off of Amazon when they are free, or from the library. A lot of the free books on Amazon have not been edited well, or just plain aren't good books. I figured this book would fit in one of those categories, but I was pleasantly surprised! This book is very well written and I don't remember finding many (if any) errors. Books full of errors or missing plots drive me crazy. I did get a little lost about mid-way through this book, it got a little hard to keep track of all the characters and the main character, Rebecca, seems to be coming up with all sorts of random ideas of the who,what, and why of the murder, that don't make sense, but she figures it out in the end. I was happy to find a book with a strong female lead who isn't ditzy or fawning over a jerk of a guy. I would be interested in reading the next book in this series and might even pay for it! (After I'm done reading the 200+ other free ebooks on my kindle queue ;))
Do You like book Death Turns A Trick (2012)?
I was looking for something a bit lighter to read and turned to Julie Smith's new (to me) series, after having read the reviews here. I was a huge fan of her New Orleans-bases series. But they did tend to get a bit heavy for my current mood.Overall I enjoyed it. There were a few parts I found a bit goofy, like her interview with the police which had her trying to solve their case for them with very little information, or the relationship between her and the 'new' boyfriend. But I am looking forward to reading the next book and seeing how things develop with the characters.
—Anne
Rebecca Schwartz, is a Jewish Feminist lawyer, who has found herself legal representation too and a growing friendship with operator of a bordello co-op. She happens to play the piano too, it is what her Mother wanted her to peruse but more of a stress reliving pastime for her. One night she ends up playing the piano for a party in whorehouse and during a police raid finds her job is to get a near0naked senator out. She finds herself picked up and spending some time at the Hall of Justice explaining her situation.Finally, home Rebecca finds one of the girls from her the party earlier dead on her living room floor. The next morning she finds out that her new beau, Parker Phillips, is the brother of the dead hooker and has been arrested for her murder. With a new client to defend, a murder to investigate that has all sorts of new clues and things popping up in her apartment, and the press keep running into her. Especially, reporter Rob Burns who starts to help Rebecca, but the lines are starting to get blurred a little there too.I enjoyed reading about Rebecca and feel like this book did a great job at establishing a character for Rebecca. I think there were some great support character that were built and established in this book too. As well as a mystery that was set up and solved in a say that it wasn't obvious to the reader the whole time, but wasn't a complicated mess to unravel either. I did find the end of the book a little abrupt at first. I don't know why, everything was really wrapped up. For, me it was this is just kind of how it all worked out and scene. But, I felt like I was ready to move on and read more about the characters. I think the Rebecca Schwartz has places it is going to go.I would recommend this book to others who enjoy mysteries and were looking for a series. I would give it three stars.This review is part of chick lit plus blog tours.I was provided a copy of the book for review, but the summary and thoughts on the book are mine.
—Emily
Death Turns a Trick is another Julie Smith pleasure! It's the first of a series of Rebecca Schwartz...our own good Jewish girl turned into a detective........this time in a different place.....one of prostitutes and politicians and policemen and just ordinary pleasure-seeking guys.....and girls!The story takes its curves and twists and gives many surprises along with all the humor necessary to keep me laughing all the way! it moves quickly.....so it didn't take me many hours to read it straight through.Definitely a good read and laugh....
—Yonina Lamdan
