a.k.a. Sheila Doyle: A Novel of Crime

While celebrating her divorce, Sheila Doyle falls for Bobby Roberts, a male stripper who changes her life. With his instructions, she transforms herself from an 40-something ex-actress into a hard-bodied, sexy, blonde player. Together Sheila, Bobby, and minor Jewish gangster Sol Billstein smuggle money, run guns, and look for the illegal angle to make a few bucks. With the added intelligence that Sheila brings to the group, their potential appears unlimited. Things turn rough when the Bobby and Sheila anger a Cuban exile. What had been a game becomes a death-defying struggle for survival. Author Pat Jordan's smooth prose convincingly portrays the biggoted and appearance-dominated world of the underworld in Florida. Sheila's transformation, and her gradual ascendency toward dominance in the three-person team, is both interesting and unexpected. Although many readers will be offended by the language that Jordan puts into his characters dialogue (slurs of racial and sexual orientation), to me this usage feels authentic rather than forced. A few editing glitches distract somewhat, and Sol's drug subplot toward the end of the novel adds little to the theme and detracts from the immediacy of the message. Recommended for fans of 'caper' fiction.

Pat Jordan writes with a very visual style. I could see the numerous places the characters went, feel the heat of the sun or the cool of the night breeze. I could taste the succulent food ordered at restaurants. I could hear the characters speak, even their particular accents. Sol, himself, being "Nathan Detroit in gold chains." There's no doubt the author knows Florida, but he didn't try to impress me with that knowledge, he just used it as another character in this play.I enjoyed the author's fragmented style of writing, much like a narrator telling a story. I enjoyed the amount of time he took with descriptions of people and places, not overdone, illustrations of the written plot. However, I wish that some of the story had been tightened up a bit, because I found myself wondering when he was going to get to the point. It was fun being on the ride, but eventually, you gotta have somewhere to land. When he did get to the end, the resolution was a bit vague, sort of a disappointment after the way the author had shared so many details along the way.Through all the ups and downs, I can tell you that ultimately, Bobby and Sheila, and even Sol, all find some peace with their world. The three see justice served in their own individual ways. Maybe they even find love. As Sheila would say, "There's no reason not to."