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Killer Gorgeous
Trapped in an abusive marriage, socialite Allison Robbins hires hit man Montgomery Jones and inadvertently draws in solitary cop Mike Shiller, whose marred past places him at the center of the scheme. Original.
256 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 11, 2022
Allison Robbins is married to a district attorney who abuses her terribly. She feels she has no way out other than to die, so she takes a walk in a bad neighbourhood, where she winds up in the car of Montgomery Jones, a drug-dealer and hitman, and asks him to kill her.
Monty is desperate to shake Allison while he carries out his latest hits, but she won't take no for an answer. Things get complicated when she saves him from certain death.
Meanwhile, Mike Shiller is a cop eager to get the drop on Monty and put him in jail. The two are at loggerheads, because Shiller accidentally shot and killed Monty's son. Mike is also a target of Allison's DA husband, because Mike was the only cop who took the DA to task for being an abusive husband. The lives of these three people converge in interesting ways.
This just didn't work for me. It tries hard to be an urban noir-ish tale, but all of the plot elements just felt random. There really was no rhyme and reason to what was happening. There's lots and lots and lots of talk about "being right in the eyes of God" and it got tiresome. The three main characters are all seeking redemptionof some kind, and it's delivered in a very heavy-handed manner.
By the end, I was skimming. The plot, very late in the game, brings in some gangster family by the name of Watson, who had never been mentioned up until that point, and I simply didn't care what happened. There's a lot of use of the "N" word, which I didn't like. Monty's mother is some sort of psychic, which just made me roll my eyes.
Everything that happened just felt very random and none of it held together very well.
Monty is desperate to shake Allison while he carries out his latest hits, but she won't take no for an answer. Things get complicated when she saves him from certain death.
Meanwhile, Mike Shiller is a cop eager to get the drop on Monty and put him in jail. The two are at loggerheads, because Shiller accidentally shot and killed Monty's son. Mike is also a target of Allison's DA husband, because Mike was the only cop who took the DA to task for being an abusive husband. The lives of these three people converge in interesting ways.
This just didn't work for me. It tries hard to be an urban noir-ish tale, but all of the plot elements just felt random. There really was no rhyme and reason to what was happening. There's lots and lots and lots of talk about "being right in the eyes of God" and it got tiresome. The three main characters are all seeking redemptionof some kind, and it's delivered in a very heavy-handed manner.
By the end, I was skimming. The plot, very late in the game, brings in some gangster family by the name of Watson, who had never been mentioned up until that point, and I simply didn't care what happened. There's a lot of use of the "N" word, which I didn't like. Monty's mother is some sort of psychic, which just made me roll my eyes.
Everything that happened just felt very random and none of it held together very well.
August 31, 2010
Killer Gorgeous (Jane Holleman)
Thriller/Suspense. Alliosn Robbins is a socialite, married to a powerful man. She is also a victim of domestic abuse, brutal, physical, psychological. She feels there is no way out of her living hell. She comes up with the idea of having herself killed. She meets up with Montgomery "Monty" Jones, a bad killer and drug dealer. He would be the perfect man to pull this off.
Soon Monty finds himself in a situation that was not meant to be. When he finds out who Allison's husband is he wants no part of her. She is determined to have him kill her, and he just wants to "shake" this crazy woman.
Enter Mike Shiller, a loner of a cop with a torrid past. He claims that the shooting was an accident, but this "accident" haunts his every waking moment. Mike has an attitude, but he knows what he wants, and he wants to do things his way.
All three become entwined in a twisted situation, with one man the root of the problem. Who will come out the winner, and who will lose. Quick read, filled with suspense.
Thriller/Suspense. Alliosn Robbins is a socialite, married to a powerful man. She is also a victim of domestic abuse, brutal, physical, psychological. She feels there is no way out of her living hell. She comes up with the idea of having herself killed. She meets up with Montgomery "Monty" Jones, a bad killer and drug dealer. He would be the perfect man to pull this off.
Soon Monty finds himself in a situation that was not meant to be. When he finds out who Allison's husband is he wants no part of her. She is determined to have him kill her, and he just wants to "shake" this crazy woman.
Enter Mike Shiller, a loner of a cop with a torrid past. He claims that the shooting was an accident, but this "accident" haunts his every waking moment. Mike has an attitude, but he knows what he wants, and he wants to do things his way.
All three become entwined in a twisted situation, with one man the root of the problem. Who will come out the winner, and who will lose. Quick read, filled with suspense.
April 9, 2016
Allison wants to kill herself, but can't bring herself to actually do it, so she wanders around a bad neighbourhood, hoping she'll just get shot. When that doesn't happen, she jumps into a car and asks a black man, Monty – a drug dealer and killer – to shoot her. From there, we learn more about both these characters, plus about a cop. Later, all three of them are entwined and connected in the story.
The book was ok. It was gritty and rough, and lots of swearing, especially at the start of the book, which put me off a little bit (swearing doesn't usually bother me, but it was excessive in the first few pages). The story did get more interesting as it went along, though, I thought.
The book was ok. It was gritty and rough, and lots of swearing, especially at the start of the book, which put me off a little bit (swearing doesn't usually bother me, but it was excessive in the first few pages). The story did get more interesting as it went along, though, I thought.
July 20, 2020
Crisply written, gritty and glitzy, Jane Holleman's delightful book has a plot reminiscent of a Mexican Standoff:
*Allison Robbins, an abused high-society wife, wanders into "da hood" to hire a hitman to kill...herself;
*The Argani-clad hitman, Monty Jones, has a murderous grudge against the detective who killed his 14-year-old brother, Othel (when the detective mistook the boy's toy gun for a real gun);
*The detective, Mike Shiller, is trying to pin multiple murders to Monty--except Monty is being alibied by socialite Allison;
*Meanwhile, Detective Shiller knows that the husband abusing socialite Allison is...the District Attorney;
*The DA, Marshall Robbins, is trying to force a new grand-jury in order to frame Detective Shiller for the killing of Othel.
And yet, despite the dramatic chaos, Holleman's book contains more than a few moments of poignant human connection--between Monty's mom and Allison (pp. 94-99), Monty and his woman, Jasmine (105-09), and Monty and Jasmine's little boy (139-142)
I greatly enjoyed this book; I'd definitely read another one by the same author.
*Allison Robbins, an abused high-society wife, wanders into "da hood" to hire a hitman to kill...herself;
*The Argani-clad hitman, Monty Jones, has a murderous grudge against the detective who killed his 14-year-old brother, Othel (when the detective mistook the boy's toy gun for a real gun);
*The detective, Mike Shiller, is trying to pin multiple murders to Monty--except Monty is being alibied by socialite Allison;
*Meanwhile, Detective Shiller knows that the husband abusing socialite Allison is...the District Attorney;
*The DA, Marshall Robbins, is trying to force a new grand-jury in order to frame Detective Shiller for the killing of Othel.
And yet, despite the dramatic chaos, Holleman's book contains more than a few moments of poignant human connection--between Monty's mom and Allison (pp. 94-99), Monty and his woman, Jasmine (105-09), and Monty and Jasmine's little boy (139-142)
I greatly enjoyed this book; I'd definitely read another one by the same author.
May 1, 2018
It's ok if you don't mind vulgarity and racism and, of course, lots of murder
January 30, 2021
This book was not as good as I hoped it would be. The story line was slow moving.
February 9, 2011
I borrowed this from my sister, and while she and I have differing taste in books, I actually liked this one. The trio of protagonists is a mesh of baggage, despair, and the need for redemption, and who in the whole wide world can't relate to that? The pace is quick, the suspense is well-maintained, and there's some genuinely funny moments. There's a lot of language, though; it's not for the faint of heart by any means. Even if reality gets a little hazy at times, the story is real, a stark brutal, in-your-face real. Would I read this again? You bet!
February 7, 2011
Ok so forget it "potty" mouth writing, once I picked it up I couldn't put it down. It had me hook, line, and sinker. Plots maybe a little foreseeable but what book doesn't at some point in time have that issue? I'd definitely read it again.
December 7, 2012
Good book... it was a fast read (not long) and paced very well. The characters were earthy and well developed and the story was definitely original in the way it was put together. It had some good twists and definitely held my interest the entire time.
July 24, 2011
Good book.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews