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Nina Fischman #5
Alternate Sides
When a corpse is found in her boyfriend Jonathan's double-parked car, New York lawyer Nina Fischman encounters a mailman moonlighting as a pimp, among other obstacles, on her way to catch a killer. Reprint.
293 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published July 1, 1995
15 people want to read
About the author
Marissa Piesman
17 books9 followers New York attorney Marissa Piesman (Assistant New York State Attorney General) writes the popular Nina Fischman series and is also co-author of The Yuppie Handbook (1984).
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 26, 2008
ALTERNATE SIDES - DNF
Piesman, Marissa - 5th in Nina Fishman series
Nina Fischman's back–with a boyfriend! So what if he's a murder suspect for the second time since she's known him? Nina's pushing forty. And besides, she's reasonably sure that Jonathan is innocent, even if he does live on the wrong side of town.
"Follow the postman," Nina's mama Ida says. "He'll know where the bodies are buried." And once again, Ida is right. Not only does Jonathan's mailman have the scoop on the corpse found in Jonathan's double-parked car, but he's got a few secrets of his own. He's been moonlighting as a pimp in Jonathan's building. The East Side! Hookers! A postman pimp! As Nina risks her good name and floundering career to catch a killer, she can't help but wonder about her relationship with Jonathan. After all, if there's anything more scary than a low-IQ high-rise on the East Side–or a corpse in your boyfriend's car–it's got to be commitment
This was so boring, I couldn't get through it.
Piesman, Marissa - 5th in Nina Fishman series
Nina Fischman's back–with a boyfriend! So what if he's a murder suspect for the second time since she's known him? Nina's pushing forty. And besides, she's reasonably sure that Jonathan is innocent, even if he does live on the wrong side of town.
"Follow the postman," Nina's mama Ida says. "He'll know where the bodies are buried." And once again, Ida is right. Not only does Jonathan's mailman have the scoop on the corpse found in Jonathan's double-parked car, but he's got a few secrets of his own. He's been moonlighting as a pimp in Jonathan's building. The East Side! Hookers! A postman pimp! As Nina risks her good name and floundering career to catch a killer, she can't help but wonder about her relationship with Jonathan. After all, if there's anything more scary than a low-IQ high-rise on the East Side–or a corpse in your boyfriend's car–it's got to be commitment
This was so boring, I couldn't get through it.
July 24, 2010
If you like Evanovich, you'll like Piesman !
It was just dumb luck -- we were completely out of reading material and kind of grabbed just the first mystery we knew we hadn't read off the library shelf. And what a treat! Our leading lady, Nina Fischman, is to lawyers what Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum is to bounty hunters -- a self-deprecating, somewhat bumbling but lovable character who in the end, "gets her man" (in the sense of the crook!). And like Plum, the plot takes second seat to the mental ramblings, insecurities with men, relationships with family, and on and on -- heck, almost like real life! And Piesman does so with humor so on target that we felt entertained throughout, despite the relative triviality of solving the murder that gave us the excuse for the story in the first place.
Nina spends the whole book debating whether to shack up with her beau Jonathan (both very casual Jews, a fact exploited for little other than some OK ethnic humor...), whether to marry him, and whether to give up her job of over a decade in Legal Services to elderly indigent folks. Everyday situations pose plenty of doubts and introspective skirmishes with herself that are both hilarious on one hand, and yet close to the bone re the human condition on the other. Indeed, "who worries if they look good in orange if they've got big thighs" is a typical enigma posed to us readers somewhere along the line.
Yes -- there is a plot of sorts: Johnathan's building doorman is murdered (in Johnathan's car no less as he was moving it to the alternate side of the street due to some bizarre NYC {home to our series} parking regs {hence the book's title}). In the process of not working too hard to solve it, but hard enough that the answers came out, Nina discovers a mailman doubling as a high class call-girl pimp, a politician stalking his favorite prostitute, and several other similar characters who enliven the tale as things ultimately proceed toward some conclusions.
All-in-all, hardly a cerebral escapade, nor (ala Kellerman) a treatise in Jewish Orthodoxy -- just a delightfully funny tale of life in the city for uncertain people -- aren't we all??
This is apparently the fifth in Piesman's series of six total, we can't wait to go back and start at the start!
It was just dumb luck -- we were completely out of reading material and kind of grabbed just the first mystery we knew we hadn't read off the library shelf. And what a treat! Our leading lady, Nina Fischman, is to lawyers what Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum is to bounty hunters -- a self-deprecating, somewhat bumbling but lovable character who in the end, "gets her man" (in the sense of the crook!). And like Plum, the plot takes second seat to the mental ramblings, insecurities with men, relationships with family, and on and on -- heck, almost like real life! And Piesman does so with humor so on target that we felt entertained throughout, despite the relative triviality of solving the murder that gave us the excuse for the story in the first place.
Nina spends the whole book debating whether to shack up with her beau Jonathan (both very casual Jews, a fact exploited for little other than some OK ethnic humor...), whether to marry him, and whether to give up her job of over a decade in Legal Services to elderly indigent folks. Everyday situations pose plenty of doubts and introspective skirmishes with herself that are both hilarious on one hand, and yet close to the bone re the human condition on the other. Indeed, "who worries if they look good in orange if they've got big thighs" is a typical enigma posed to us readers somewhere along the line.
Yes -- there is a plot of sorts: Johnathan's building doorman is murdered (in Johnathan's car no less as he was moving it to the alternate side of the street due to some bizarre NYC {home to our series} parking regs {hence the book's title}). In the process of not working too hard to solve it, but hard enough that the answers came out, Nina discovers a mailman doubling as a high class call-girl pimp, a politician stalking his favorite prostitute, and several other similar characters who enliven the tale as things ultimately proceed toward some conclusions.
All-in-all, hardly a cerebral escapade, nor (ala Kellerman) a treatise in Jewish Orthodoxy -- just a delightfully funny tale of life in the city for uncertain people -- aren't we all??
This is apparently the fifth in Piesman's series of six total, we can't wait to go back and start at the start!
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October 21, 20121995 Nina Fischman #5. Romance w/ Jonathen started in Close Quarters continues.
November 10, 2011
A sturdy, pithy read. Not a great mystery, but full of cranky New York fun.
March 23, 2008
Another fun romp by Piesman.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews