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Book Chat:
Killer Cinderella & The Winner
By Elizabeth Parker
Last month, I reviewed several books which
were heavy on crossdressing activity, but light in
descriptiveness of the crossdressing. Because of that,
what I call the "thrill factor" is absent in
those books. I'll introduce you to several books this
month which will make up for that in a big way..
"Killer Cinderella", by
Simon Shaw, is a black-humored comic romp about a man, Mark Harvey,
who is a banker and member of the Civil War Reenactment Society.
Frustrated by his neurotic and overweight wife, Maddy, who nags him
and ultimately engages in an affair, he accidentally kills her in a
fit of rage. Since he has a suicidal lodger, an overly inquisitive
neighbor, Maddy's fervently feminist best friend, and Maddy's lover
hanging inconveniently about, he casts about for a way to hide
Maddy's body and get out of the fix he's in. He temporarily hides his
wife's body in the basement freezer. Then when her lover comes by at
night, he frantically tries something desperate; he places Maddy's
blonde wig on his head, and impersonates her through the window.
Fortunately, the lover is near-sighted and somewhat foolish, so the
impersonation works. This incident
gives Mark an idea for how to get Maddy's girlfriend off his back. He
dresses completely as Maddy, using her clothes from before she gained
weight. He uses her cosmetics on his face. In the process he
discovers that he quite likes the way he looks as a woman. He then
gets in the car and drives by her friend's bakery, honking the horn
so her friend can see her alive. The ruse works, though he endangers
himself by wearing her glasses too long, which limits his vision. On
the way home, he has an encounter with his neighbor, Reg Talbot. Reg
has never seen Maddy close up, so he believes that Mark is Maddy. He
finds himself quite attracted to the new and improved Maddy. Mark is
forced to invite Reg in for a drink, and before he knows what is
happining, he is being kissed by Reg. He fights Reg off, and gets him
to leave. By now, Mark realizes how nice
looking and remarkable a woman he makes. This causes him to create a
personality for himself as "Madeleine". He sees himself not
as a crossdressed man, but as a woman. He finds reading women's
magazines enthralling, a whole new sensational world. He enjoys
himself at a women's shoe store, feeling relaxed and comfortable in
the company of elegant and refined women like himself.
Reg sucessfully invites Madeleine to dinner and
Mark arrives dressed in a lovely dark-blue velvet dress with a bow at
the back and wearing his new pumps. He is a vision. Shortly into the
evening however, Mark hears some distressing news, snaps a heel on
his shoe, takes it off and flees home. Left with a shoe, Reg is set
to look for his "Cinderella". When Mark's lodger commits suicide with Mark's help,
everything comes to a head with Mark dealing with the usual Police
Inspector, and two competitive tabloid journalists. But the delicious
ending will not be quite what you expect. I owe Stephanie a big thank you for the tip on this book.
She tells me that Simon Shaw has also written a series about an
actor, Philip Fletcher, who murders his competition in the first
book. Fletcher's primary motivation is self-interest, and he uses his
acting and makeup skills extensively to facilitate his plots.
Stephanie tells me that the latest in the series, "The
Company of Knaves", involves Fletcher going undercover
as a drag artiste, Marlene von Whiplash. I'll report on this when I
can obtain a copy.
The next book is
the latest release by David Baldacci, the author of "Absolute
Power", the book behind the movie starring Clint Eastwood.
"The Winner" has a fascinating concept:
what if the national lottery could be fixed? The monomaniacal brain
behind that idea is Jackson, a financial genius who conceives the
idea, then implements it using 12 patsys; one a month for a year. He
greatly facilitaties his scheme with his hobby; disguise. He loves
disguising himself as other people. And I do mean other people. He is
a skilled mimic and makeup artist. He uses that ability to perform
flawless impersonations of real people he's studied. The
personality type Jackson seeks for his lottery winners is that of a
down-on-their luck person who has a human interest story which will
play well in the media. They must also be willing to submit to
Jackson's plans for them. That profile seems to fit LuAnn Tyler, a
beautiful trailer-trash waitress with a no-good drug-dealing husband
and an infant daughter. When Jackson approaches her with his plan,
she has enough integrity to be cautious at first. However when she
arrives home and discovers her husband dead from a drug deal gone
bad, and she has to kill a hit man to escape, she panics and agrees
to Jackson's plan. The inevitable occurs and LuAnn wins the
lottery. But by now the law is on her trail thinking she killed her
husband. Jackson helps her to escape in a unique way which involves
him dressing as a woman. This one passage is a great transgender
read, and involves some good disguise discussion. Jackson is of
course, a very passable woman and seems to enjoy the disguise.
Unfortunately, though there is more crossdressing, it is not
described in as much detail and is somewhat limited. But the book
itself is quite enjoyable on its own. One interesting aspect
is that the book seems to have "movie" stamped all over it.
It would be interesting to see one of our young chamelion-like actors
take on the Jackson role. Your tips have
been paying off! If you have any no matter how trivial I am as always
at 72117.571@compuserve.com.
Next month I've got several books of different genres
for you. Bibliography Baldacci,
David, "The Winner", Warner Books, December 1997, ISBN:
0-446-52259-7 Shaw, Simon, "The Company of
Knaves", Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's Press , January 1998,
ISBN: 0312180691 Shaw, Simon, "Killer
Cinderella", Doubleday, 1992, ISBN: 0-385-41891-4
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