Fast Women

I was reading FAST WOMEN at the beach--yes! it's a beach book--and I was laughing so hard that other women, total strangers, kept stopping by to see what I was reading with such enjoyment.I've read all of Crusie's novels. While all of them were good (obviously, or I wouldn't have bothered to keep buying them), FAST WOMEN is in a class by itself. Either Crusie has matured as an author, or her editors finally are allowing her to tell her tales as she sees fit.FAST WOMEN also could have been named SMART WOMEN. For a change, the heroine and her friends are middle-aged, and sort of battle-scarred by life--exactly as most real people are, too.This is a fast-moving story, with mystery...ex-husbands... retribution...true love...and great sex. The novel is compelling and all's well that ends well. In the process of getting to that end, yes, you'll have some good laughs.

A fairly common complaint is that FAST WOMEN is not WELCOME TO TEMPTATION. Personally, I think that's a good thing. True....TEMPTATION is an excellent book. So is WOMEN. They're very dissimilar, thank heavens. Frankly, I get tired of the "cookie cutter" characters when an author finds a format that's selling and refuses to stray from it. Crusie gets edgy and isn't afraid to break away from the pack and FAST WOMEN reflects that break.Nell Dysart has been dumped by her husband of 22 years and with the help of her two sister-in-laws, is groping for a new life. Due to a few twist and laughable turns she finds herself working for a couple of detectives in their antiquated office that she immediately decides to update,(the office, not the detectives) but not before she has innocently managed to create even more damage. By the time she has made changes in the office she has also dug through the tough shield that the #1 detective, Gabe McKenna has shrouded himself in. Crusie developed a novel that is pure feel-good entertainment and serves up plenty of opportunities to laugh out loud. As an added bonus the reader gets to try and figure out the mystery that is brewing throughout the book. It's not heavy reading, but who wants that on lazy hot summer days? If I want to dig into WAR AND PEACE again, I'll save that for those long, dreary winter months. Until then, I'll grab every Crusie book as fast as she can turn them out.

'Fast Women' is not as tightly edited as some of Crusie's previous works. That said, even with loose editing Crusie can keep me up all night reading from cover to cover. The primary couple are mighty appealing: Nell, a hilariously disaster-prone dynamo who reminds me of Kate from 'Manhunting'; and Gabe, who is more macho than any of her heroes I've read to date but most definitely not in a bad way ;-). The secondary couple are fun to read too: Suze, who manages to be both drop dead gorgeous and likable without stealing Nell's thunder; and Riley, who - well, there's a hot little surprise I won't give away. I haven't seen Crusie use this plot element before, but I hope she does it again :-D. The plot begins when Suze and Margie help Nell, their former sister-in-law who's still shell-shocked from the divorce, get a job with Gabe's detective agency. Nell proves to be so efficient at her job that she uncovers a twenty-odd year-old mystery that might involve Gabe's father and her ex-inlaws. Gabe starts investigating. Nell gets in touch with her anger. Margie loses touch with reality. Suze starts to wonder about her own marriage, not knowing Riley's been carrying a torch for her because of interesting circumstances. It's all genuine Jennifer Crusie, complicated, hilarious and real as only she could make it.

Things you can count on from Jennifer Crusie: one-liners no one else in the world would think of, let alone say ... characters that make you just wring your hands for them ... inventive plots that in themselves set you up for laughter ... all with a worldly view of life that makes you come away from her books feeling a little wiser somehow than when you started.The extras in FAST WOMEN: the most complex, interesting love relationship Crusie has ever put on paper ... hilarious one-liners that fit so neatly into the story you almost miss them, then do a double-take, go back for them, and enjoy them twice as much (or just simply burst out laughing because you can't believe he/she SAID that)... a crazy, funny murder mystery with more cold bodies--ice-hard cold bodies!--than you'd find in the Clondike ... laughter somehow eeked out of the toughest stuff of life, starting with the pain for divorce. Oh, and I should mention she writes some darn fine love scenes--a surprising combination of sexy and funny, both.Crusie knows life. She milks it for its joy and doesn't pass on the sorrow--she knows how to make you laugh at all of it. Buy this one, her best yet! Read it first before all the other books sitting on your nightstand! This one will entertain you into the wee hours.

It's amazing how Jennifer Crusie can write book after book that reaches out and pulls you into a fascinating world of off beat characters. In Fast Women, Crusie introduces three women, all going through some type of personal crisis. It starts out with Nell, a woman who worked by her husband and helped build his business and career from the ground up. Just when their child is grown and the business successful beyond expectations-you got it-he dumps her and ends up marrying a younger woman. Nell has spent 18 months struggling to get her act back together. Now she ready to resume her life with a new job. Unfortunately she picks a detective agency to apply at recommended by her former brother-in-law. Her interview and what can happen is hilarious. Her boss is Gabe, a strong dynamic force that wants things done his way, not Nell's way. The battle begins. Next up is Suze. She's the child bride who married a man twenty something years older than she. You would think being wife number three or four, you would have a clue this man wasn't the type to be faithful. But no, Suze hasn't a clue because her man has stayed with her after she turned thirty, unlike with the previous wives, so it must be true love. After fourteen years of marriage, she's still being treated like the child bride. Suze wants to be independent and make her own money, but hasn't the faintest idea how to go about it since hubby has always taken care of her. The last friend is Margie. She's the rich daughter who had witnessed the traumatic death of her mother. Margie's husband skipped out on her after embezzling over a million dollars from daddy's firm. Margie hasn't seen or heard from hubby in over seven years, yet she refuses to declare him legally dead. Why? She might just have to make some decisions in her life-something she's not good at. While Fast Women doesn't sizzle like Crusie's last novel, Welcome to Temptation, I found it to be just as good. The three female characters make the perfect group. If you haven't met one of them, you've heard of someone just like them. There's romance, sex, and mystery in this novel. Give it a read, it's worth the time.