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Sugar Tower
Set in today's Manhattan, Sugar Tower is a sharp and funny tale of a woman forced to reinvent herself as the platforms she built her life upon are dissolving beneath her feet. With uncanny perceptiveness, this novel delves into societal shifts that impact us all - the real estate bubble, the decline of feminism, the obsolescence of print journalism - in the context of a murder mystery that titillates and dazzles from beginning to end.
315 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 11, 2010
8 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 30, 2015
I love a good Who Dun It and this was perfect. It really kept my interest and didn't take me long to finish it. I hope Ms Rohm writes another book based on this character.
November 12, 2010
Ever walk by one of those fancy Manhattan high-rise buildings, and think about what it must be like to live there? It must be glamorous. You have every material possession at your fingertips. Money, cars and jewelry, it must be nice to live there. Or is it?
What if no one like you? Your mere presence strikes fear in your employees and neighbors. You constantly get into fights over the smallest things. Your own family is emotionally detached from you. Your husband gives you everything, most importantly his love, but that's not enough. You don't even like yourself, and material possessions aren't enough so you turn to drugs. Anything to mask the real you. The person I speak of is Anabel Trainor Sugarman, a character who is murdered in the opening pages of Sugar Tower by Jessica Dee Rohm.
Anabel seems to have it all, beauty, youth, money and power, and a much older husband, Barry Sugarman. Barry is the owner of Sugar Tower, a ritzy new building trying to stand out amidst the real estate crash. Anabel's suspicious death goes unsolved for a year, which doesn't sit right with real estate reporter Marchesa "Mach" Jesus Piazza. Mach is drowning on a flat beat. What's to report? Everyone is losing their homes? Revisiting the Sugarman case could be her ticket to more in-depth reporting. After all, journalism isn't what it used to be.
"Journalism isn't about truth anymore; it's mostly about sensationalism, finding a way to enliven a jaded public, reverse its immunity to the time-worn horrors human beings subject other human beings to."
As a newspaper copy editor, I have to agree. Real journalism is a dying breed. The real news gets buried because the new starlet on the scene got sentenced to rehab.
The cast of characters in Sugar Tower are an eccentric and funny bunch. A drug-dealing couple, one of whom gets into a drag-out fight with Anabel over a dog. A front desk clerk who speaks in rhyme. A dog walker with a no-nonsense attitude. And of course real estate mogul Barry Sugarman.
Bary is a person Mach can't quite figure out. He can be kind and thoughtful one moment, and then cold the next. To get insight on the marriage and Anabel herself, Mach gets close to Sugarman. This is where I have a little problem with Mach's character. Most reporters want to get the story, that is the task at the end of the day. But, in my opinion, Mach crosses ethical boundaries. Dinners and lunches with potential suspects are borderline. But how many investigative reporters spend Thanksgiving with them too, in their home?
Ethical boundaries aside, I enjoyed the story. Each chapter you get a clue into Anabel's life and Mach's as well. The murder and method are...um...unique. I won't say what it is, but it's a first for me. Reading the book, you feel sorry for the murderer. How often does that happen? I was hoping it wasn't this person. It has to be someone else. What drives a person to that point? But if you can empathize with the murderer, that's the mark of a good writer. Sugar Tower is very timely and believable, check it out!
Rating: Superb
Note: I received a copy of the novel from the author in exchange for an honest review. For more information on author Jessica Dee Rohm, visit: http://jessicadeerohm.com/
What if no one like you? Your mere presence strikes fear in your employees and neighbors. You constantly get into fights over the smallest things. Your own family is emotionally detached from you. Your husband gives you everything, most importantly his love, but that's not enough. You don't even like yourself, and material possessions aren't enough so you turn to drugs. Anything to mask the real you. The person I speak of is Anabel Trainor Sugarman, a character who is murdered in the opening pages of Sugar Tower by Jessica Dee Rohm.
Anabel seems to have it all, beauty, youth, money and power, and a much older husband, Barry Sugarman. Barry is the owner of Sugar Tower, a ritzy new building trying to stand out amidst the real estate crash. Anabel's suspicious death goes unsolved for a year, which doesn't sit right with real estate reporter Marchesa "Mach" Jesus Piazza. Mach is drowning on a flat beat. What's to report? Everyone is losing their homes? Revisiting the Sugarman case could be her ticket to more in-depth reporting. After all, journalism isn't what it used to be.
"Journalism isn't about truth anymore; it's mostly about sensationalism, finding a way to enliven a jaded public, reverse its immunity to the time-worn horrors human beings subject other human beings to."
As a newspaper copy editor, I have to agree. Real journalism is a dying breed. The real news gets buried because the new starlet on the scene got sentenced to rehab.
The cast of characters in Sugar Tower are an eccentric and funny bunch. A drug-dealing couple, one of whom gets into a drag-out fight with Anabel over a dog. A front desk clerk who speaks in rhyme. A dog walker with a no-nonsense attitude. And of course real estate mogul Barry Sugarman.
Bary is a person Mach can't quite figure out. He can be kind and thoughtful one moment, and then cold the next. To get insight on the marriage and Anabel herself, Mach gets close to Sugarman. This is where I have a little problem with Mach's character. Most reporters want to get the story, that is the task at the end of the day. But, in my opinion, Mach crosses ethical boundaries. Dinners and lunches with potential suspects are borderline. But how many investigative reporters spend Thanksgiving with them too, in their home?
Ethical boundaries aside, I enjoyed the story. Each chapter you get a clue into Anabel's life and Mach's as well. The murder and method are...um...unique. I won't say what it is, but it's a first for me. Reading the book, you feel sorry for the murderer. How often does that happen? I was hoping it wasn't this person. It has to be someone else. What drives a person to that point? But if you can empathize with the murderer, that's the mark of a good writer. Sugar Tower is very timely and believable, check it out!
Rating: Superb
Note: I received a copy of the novel from the author in exchange for an honest review. For more information on author Jessica Dee Rohm, visit: http://jessicadeerohm.com/
December 14, 2010
I happened to stumble across this book while reading through one of my email lists. The author was seeking reviews. I was more than willing to pay the $2.99 for the Kindle ebook. Ah, the wonders of serendipity!
SUGAR TOWER is about a female reporter named M. Jesus Piazza. (The M is for Marchesa. Not to be confused with the former New York Mets catcher!) Piazza has spent her life in pursuit of a dream career as an investigative journalist for a first-tier newspaper, only to end up on the New York City real estate beat for a paper a bit lower on the journalistic ladder. She's of a, um, certain age, single (aka, married to her career) and second guessing a lot of her choices. She once had a romantic relationship with her editor with whom she remains friends (naturally) and must also deal with her aging father. And I haven't even told you about the mystery yet!
The mystery revolves around the death of Anabel Sugarman, the wife of a big-time real estate mogul named Barry. Piazza originally covered the case (an apparent accidental drowning in the couple's pool) as part of her work as a real estate reporter. However, Piazza (sensing something much bigger afoot) checks with the medical examiner later and learns Anabel had enough toxin in her system to make her death "officially suspicious."
So, years later and after bending her ex-lover/editor's ear, Piazza is teamed up with the NYPD homicide detective Emilio Urquia on the case. Um, what? Since when do reporters and police team up? Well, apparently, a new task force dedicated to solving cold crimes will stop at nothing to accomplish their mission. Including working with reporters. Okay, then.
Piazza and Urquia seem to have little problem digging right into their task. Barry and Anabel lived in one of the penthouses at the Sugar Tower and, basically, the whole building is full of suspects. Anabel wasn't exactly the nicest person ever. And Sugar Tower is populated with residents who have all sorts of secrets.
Even so, that's not even the best part of the story. What makes this story special is spending time with this protagonist. M. Jesus Piazza has a wonderful way of expressing herself (with lots of parenthetical asides -- funny and otherwise). This is true, whether she's extolling her love-hate relationship with the City of New York or describing a thrilling night at the opera. Piazza is also forced, at one point, to deal with a situation involving her father. One involving tough moral choices. Choices -- there's that word again.
This may be one of the most character-driven mysteries I've ever read. Not that plot is short-changed. Jessica Dee Rohm's ability to weave the character's thoughts and feelings seamlessly into the plot is amazing. Her writing style is smooth and rich with descriptions that swept me away. She also clearly knows her subject: the details of real estate and finance are handled in enough detail to inform the reader without getting too technical.
Read the entire review at http://thebookgrrl.blogspot.com/2010/...
SUGAR TOWER is about a female reporter named M. Jesus Piazza. (The M is for Marchesa. Not to be confused with the former New York Mets catcher!) Piazza has spent her life in pursuit of a dream career as an investigative journalist for a first-tier newspaper, only to end up on the New York City real estate beat for a paper a bit lower on the journalistic ladder. She's of a, um, certain age, single (aka, married to her career) and second guessing a lot of her choices. She once had a romantic relationship with her editor with whom she remains friends (naturally) and must also deal with her aging father. And I haven't even told you about the mystery yet!
The mystery revolves around the death of Anabel Sugarman, the wife of a big-time real estate mogul named Barry. Piazza originally covered the case (an apparent accidental drowning in the couple's pool) as part of her work as a real estate reporter. However, Piazza (sensing something much bigger afoot) checks with the medical examiner later and learns Anabel had enough toxin in her system to make her death "officially suspicious."
So, years later and after bending her ex-lover/editor's ear, Piazza is teamed up with the NYPD homicide detective Emilio Urquia on the case. Um, what? Since when do reporters and police team up? Well, apparently, a new task force dedicated to solving cold crimes will stop at nothing to accomplish their mission. Including working with reporters. Okay, then.
Piazza and Urquia seem to have little problem digging right into their task. Barry and Anabel lived in one of the penthouses at the Sugar Tower and, basically, the whole building is full of suspects. Anabel wasn't exactly the nicest person ever. And Sugar Tower is populated with residents who have all sorts of secrets.
Even so, that's not even the best part of the story. What makes this story special is spending time with this protagonist. M. Jesus Piazza has a wonderful way of expressing herself (with lots of parenthetical asides -- funny and otherwise). This is true, whether she's extolling her love-hate relationship with the City of New York or describing a thrilling night at the opera. Piazza is also forced, at one point, to deal with a situation involving her father. One involving tough moral choices. Choices -- there's that word again.
This may be one of the most character-driven mysteries I've ever read. Not that plot is short-changed. Jessica Dee Rohm's ability to weave the character's thoughts and feelings seamlessly into the plot is amazing. Her writing style is smooth and rich with descriptions that swept me away. She also clearly knows her subject: the details of real estate and finance are handled in enough detail to inform the reader without getting too technical.
Read the entire review at http://thebookgrrl.blogspot.com/2010/...
October 17, 2010
There have been many words bandied about trying to put those that are self- published in a bad light lately, and I for one am really surprised. Sugar Tower by Jessica Dee Rohm was a quarter finalists for the 2010 Amazon Breakthrough Novel of The Year and with good reason. Basically it is a well written novel that grabbed me right away and made it very difficult for me to put it down. Here is the synopsis of the novel : “The great real estate crash has pulled the rug out from beneath the feet of one of New York’s best known developers. While he struggles to keep his family dynasty afloat, his wife is found dead in the swimming pool of his newest trophy condominium, Sugar Tower. The newspaper reporter covering the real estate beat at the City’s second largest daily becomes obsessed with investigating the death of the developer’s wife and inadvertently discovers secrets about Sugar Tower’s wealthy occupants, normally guarded by doorman and concierges, as well as a few about herself.”
Here is a quote from Jessica herself as she answered a few questions for the New York Daily News, “If you want to know what really goes on inside these million-dollar apartments in those glass towers, here's your chance to find out the easy way. Rohm would know. She was the managing director of The Residences at the Ritz-Carlton, Westchester, where she sold out the first tower at record prices for the area. She also lives there. Think "Sex and the City" with a real estate angle and a murder twist. “Developers are such fascinating people," says Rohm. "They aren't risk takers, they're gamblers. When they win, they win big. When they lose, they lose big. The book explores that."
Sugar Tower is a mix of many different things and that is what drew me in as I read through it. Her narrative, given her experiences, makes this novel an intense and captivating read. The characters are strong, intense and driven. Given her position in the real estate industry one can only imagine what is fact and what is fiction as we get an opportunity to walk in some rare air as the money flies around and the stakes go higher and higher. Jessica Dee Rohm delivers a novel that satisfies on all levels. I for one am happy to have read this. Give it a try; click the Amazon button to order the novel or at the very least put it in your to read list on Goodreads or Shelfari. Here is here website address:
http://www.jessicadeerohm.com/
What are you reading today? Check us out and become our friend on Facebook & Linkedin. Go to Goodreads and become our friend there and suggest books for us to read and post on. You can also follow us on Twitter, and the Gelati’s Scoop Facebook Fan Page. Did you know you can shop directly on Amazon by clicking the Gelati’s Store Tab on our blog? Thanks for stopping by today; We will see you tomorrow. Have a great day. http://www.gelatisscoop.blogspot.com
Here is a quote from Jessica herself as she answered a few questions for the New York Daily News, “If you want to know what really goes on inside these million-dollar apartments in those glass towers, here's your chance to find out the easy way. Rohm would know. She was the managing director of The Residences at the Ritz-Carlton, Westchester, where she sold out the first tower at record prices for the area. She also lives there. Think "Sex and the City" with a real estate angle and a murder twist. “Developers are such fascinating people," says Rohm. "They aren't risk takers, they're gamblers. When they win, they win big. When they lose, they lose big. The book explores that."
Sugar Tower is a mix of many different things and that is what drew me in as I read through it. Her narrative, given her experiences, makes this novel an intense and captivating read. The characters are strong, intense and driven. Given her position in the real estate industry one can only imagine what is fact and what is fiction as we get an opportunity to walk in some rare air as the money flies around and the stakes go higher and higher. Jessica Dee Rohm delivers a novel that satisfies on all levels. I for one am happy to have read this. Give it a try; click the Amazon button to order the novel or at the very least put it in your to read list on Goodreads or Shelfari. Here is here website address:
http://www.jessicadeerohm.com/
What are you reading today? Check us out and become our friend on Facebook & Linkedin. Go to Goodreads and become our friend there and suggest books for us to read and post on. You can also follow us on Twitter, and the Gelati’s Scoop Facebook Fan Page. Did you know you can shop directly on Amazon by clicking the Gelati’s Store Tab on our blog? Thanks for stopping by today; We will see you tomorrow. Have a great day. http://www.gelatisscoop.blogspot.com
January 19, 2011
First off, my compliments to the author. I generally find just about anything to do with real estate akin to a sleeping pill. I understand it is important to have a basic knowledge of how it all works, which I do, but I find it all to be a fast track ticket to snoozeville. I did however keep my mind open to the possibility of enjoying this book, and I'm glad I was open to it, because I found it very interesting indeed. I actually learned a lot about the business, but it was intermingled so well with the intriguing storyline and characters that I found myself excitedly moving from one page to another. One thing I was bummed about was that I pegged the killer, motive and method basically right away. I think that is due to the fact that I have a million cops in my family and I have watched (WAAAAAAY too many) hours of CSI (Vegas only, I'm a native Las Vegan so I'm a purist that way), Law and Order SVU, Castle, Bones, Mentalist, you name it. I have a freaky talent for picking the bad guy the second he or she is introduced before they even say a word. Though I had it pegged right away, I still enjoyed seeing it all unfold...
To read the full review over at The Book Buff, click here: http://thebookbuff.blogspot.com/2010/...
-Kate the Book Buff
To read the full review over at The Book Buff, click here: http://thebookbuff.blogspot.com/2010/...
-Kate the Book Buff
December 10, 2010
Sugar Tower, by Jessica Dee Rohm is a fast paced story about a woman reporter who covers the story of the apparent drowning of a high profile real estate developer's wife. When a year later the story still nags at her, Marchesa "Mach" Piazza finds herself obsessing over the who-dunnit. Working in cahoots with the lead investigator she is able to follow the leads right to the murderer. Along the way, she discovers a lot about the not so nice victim and her past.
I liked this story. There were some good underpinnings and character development. For the most part, the actions taken by the reporter were plausible, and the twists of plot were interesting. The one thing that bothered me most was that the "how" of the murder was obvious from the beginning, but it took the main character until the end of the story to put two and two and two and two together. Maybe I have just read too many murder mysteries and true crime novels!
On a scale of 1-4, I give this book a 3. Overall, I liked this book. It was a fun and interesting read.
This book was published by Olivicas Press.
ISBN: 978-1453-650097
Thank you to Jessica Dee Rohm for the gift of this book.
I liked this story. There were some good underpinnings and character development. For the most part, the actions taken by the reporter were plausible, and the twists of plot were interesting. The one thing that bothered me most was that the "how" of the murder was obvious from the beginning, but it took the main character until the end of the story to put two and two and two and two together. Maybe I have just read too many murder mysteries and true crime novels!
On a scale of 1-4, I give this book a 3. Overall, I liked this book. It was a fun and interesting read.
This book was published by Olivicas Press.
ISBN: 978-1453-650097
Thank you to Jessica Dee Rohm for the gift of this book.
October 20, 2010
I was hooked from the beginning. The characters had me wanting to know more and more about them and what was going to happen in the story. Mach has to be one of my favorite characters, however I did find myself rooting for Barry in keeping everything together or tying to I should say. The author has done an excellent job with her research on medical, real estate and the financial aspects of the story. It fits right in to how the world is moving today. I highly recommend this book, a great story that will get you hooked too.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews