Tag Archives: Simons

Perilous Relations by Carole Epstein (1997) – BR00019 (2001) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
March 4 2001

Plot or Premise

Barbara Simons, retired airline exec, has purchased a ride-along-with-the-police-for-a-night in an auction, and this is her night — after several hours of boredom, the police respond to a murder scene. By happenstance, it is someone that she knows: a former exec of the same airline has been murdered. Ever inquisitive, Barbara comforts the widow, talks to the deceased’s sister, goes to the wake and then to the funeral.

What I Liked

There are several elements in this book that make the story fly along faster than the previous book in the series (Perilous Friends). There are fewer sub-stories distracting from the main plot, and the streamlining makes for a more coherent story. The writing itself is better as well, and the new characters are fleshed out where appropriate. Most importantly, there is the reintroduction of romantic options for Barbara in terms of the handsome cop Greg, as well as a not-yet-defined relationship with a new male sidekick.

What I Didn’t Like

There isn’t anything big that I didn’t like in this book, just a couple of small things. First, the relationship-cliffhanger from the end of the last book is not a major part of this book, and is instead left sitting there in limbo for a good portion of this book (until pg. 121). One of the reasons I tracked this book down was the ending of the last book — I didn’t like the cliff-hanger aspect, but I had to know what happened (normally, my To-Be-Read pile is so big that I never take the time to search for a specific book). But her out-of-town BF had been coming to visit her in the last book for what she thought was going to be a big weekend with some important announcement or question, and I expected some sort of resolution here. It doesn’t happen. For this book, the ending is a little weaker than the rest of the story, and it all comes together a little too quickly for my tastes, but it is handled rather well except for a small problem of logistics in terms of the bad guy transporting a gun around Montreal (can’t say any more than that without giving away the ending). A little unrealistic, but not enough to affect the rating.

Disclosure

I was not personal friends with the author, but I did interact with her briefly on social media.

The Bottom Line

Best in the series.

Perilous Friends by Carole Epstein (1996) – BR00063 (1999) – 🐸⚪⚪⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
February 5 1999

Plot or Premise

Barbara Simons is a newly unemployed airline exec with nothing to do. Bored, she jumps at a chance to help her fabulous friends with their problems — an ex-husband hiding money or uncovering a smuggling ring.

What I Liked

Better written than Reichs’ books in the same setting, and the overall story is interesting.

What I Didn’t Like

I hated most of this book — every character is one of life’s beautiful people, all wealthy, all extremely ravishing or handsome, and all amazingly beautiful, perky, effective at turning men’s heads deliberately and/or accidentally, and supposedly downright nice…not nice enough that you like them, but Barbara obviously thinks everyone else does.

But Barbara isn’t any better — she’s supposed to be this amazing go-getter businesswoman but she has been wallowing in self-pity for six weeks. She goes to fancy parties with the elites, but can’t relate to the average guy behind the counter at the 7-11 without going off on some trip. And while the story is interesting, the ending feels like it wraps everything up in a whirlwind 3 pages.

Finally, a small spoiler, there is a small sub-plot that ends on a “to be continued” basis, kind of like Evanovich does regularly with the Stephanie Plum series. I hate that with a passion — I like some resolution, even if there is an ongoing storyline.

Disclosure

I was not personal friends with the author, but I did interact with her briefly on social media.

The Bottom Line

Hate the characters, okay story.