Kindle Edition Amazon Norma Posy Category:  Action/Thriller Publisher: Create Space ISBN-10:  1495359018 Type: Fiction Pages: 224 Copyright: March 6, 2014 ISBN-13: 9781495359019 Price: $2.99 (eBook) Contemporary adventure story exploring gender fluidity and lesbian love wrapped into a murder mystery. Jennifer, a M-to-F transsexual, is murdered in the parking lot behind a pool hall. Maggie and Moe, dual protagonists, experience adventures as they track down the killer.  Excerpt Epilogue Maggie and Moe enjoyed a reasonably happy, if not perfect, life together. Maggie took some refresher courses, and managed to pass the California bar exam on her first try. She left the employ of Wells Investigations Inc. to open her own freelance law office. She stayed connected to George, providing occasional legal advice whenever his plans promised law-enforcement intervention. She even once defended him in a suit for defamation of character brought against him by a one-legged prostitute. Moe was promoted to job foreman after keeping the workers in line when her boss, Mr. Striker, was hospitalized following his adventure of falling over a wheelbarrow. As anyone who has tried it can bear witness, it takes all afternoon to consummate the act of falling over a wheelbarrow. Shake ’n Bake swore off hustling fish for their money and joined the pro pool tour, gaining the respect of his peers on the field of green. In midlife he enrolled in college, earned his California teaching credentials, and settled down as an elementary school teacher, supplementing his income by tutoring beginners at Side Pocket. Cheek Scar, after fleeing from his botched attempt at reclaiming the car loaned to Hank, returned to Tijuana, only to experience the wrath of Lavender Shirt. His body was included in a pile of those who had occupied the wrong side of a drug gang territory dispute. Police detectives Charlie Adler and Sally Johansen enjoyed long careers in law enforcement. Sally and Inyo County sheriff’s deputy Tommy Thompson fell in love. Charlie served as best man at their wedding. Maggie and Moe threw rice. Alyssa finally got all her shit into one sock. Side Pocket hired her as a cook to the benefit of the spaghetti dinners during the Tuesday-night nine-ball tournaments. She invested her paycheck at a cosmetology school. That led to a romance with her favorite customer, a female impersonator of some stage success. A Unitarian minister officiated their marriage at Side Pocket. Shake ’n Bake rented a tuxedo and served as best man. Larry Dexter was killed in a biker bar somewhere in south Georgia when he stupidly accused a one-eyed, red-bearded, purple-tongued, ornately tattooed, 270-pound biker wearing a pink bandanna and alligator-skin high-heeled cowboy boots, of being a fag. The brawl surrounding his demise entertained 143,702 viewers the first week after being posted on You-Tube. Paula enjoyed showing her Bible to visitors at her motel. The embedded bullet, pointing at Hebrews 13:8, always was a good conversation starter. Nina got too old to continue as a prostitute at the Kit Kat Klub. The death of her pet dog Gordo at the age of twelve jolted Pedro. For the first time, Pedro dwelt on his own finiteness. He thought better of a life dealing with the likes of Lavender Shirt, returned to school for a diploma, and supported his mother in her old age by operating a beer-distribution trucking service for Tijuana bars. Scrotum-dome jimmied one car door too many, was apprehended, and spent time in prison. While there, he got religion and made a nuisance of himself by pestering his fellow inmates with Jesus. Upon his release, he joined a traveling evangelical enterprise, and saved many souls from hellfire damnation. An automobile junk yard owner in Nogales found himself in trouble for backdoor dealing a set of Arizona license plates. He had illegally removed them from a cherry-red Corvette that had picked a fight with a telephone pole and lost. That episode was consequent to bad judgment exercised by a well-known member of the Arizona legislature while fleeing at a high rate of speed from a whorehouse undergoing a police incursion. Up in the wilderness around Bishop, California, the chipmunk, crow, pine tree, and mountain lion spent many an evening discussing the evils of humanity, and retelling their adventure with Maggie and Shake ’n Bake to the rapt attention of the four-footed beasts of the earth. (Acts 10:12, 11:6)

Earle S. Pittman:
Entrancing and well written. Difficult to put down. Runyonesque characters. I was sad when it ended, but the epilog made up for my loss.

Howard Bush
This compelling story brings you into the lives of four people and their lives and one death as they join a billiards club. One of them, a transsexual, is murdered and the hunt is on for the murderer before he/she strikes again. I found the book to be a page turner and became endeared to each of the main characters as they responded in their own ways to danger and love.

Retired Ceitic
This is a ribald, raucous, rowdy, romp through Southern California pool halls. The characters are straight out of the Raymond Chandler genre. This is a tale of murder, cons, and hi-jinks occurring in the edgy areas of San Diego and Las Vegas. The story is a creative and hilarious read.