Musclebound

by Liza Cody

The Edgar Allan Poe Award-winning author of Monkey Wrench presents the third entry in the widely acclaimed series starring London's favorite female wrestler/sleuth. When Eva Wylie finds a bag stuffed... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0747538077
• ISBN13: 9780747538073
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• Length: 249 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Bucket Nut Comes Back!

I had previously devoured the other 2 Bucket Nut books, but only recently found Musclebound on the shelf at my library. Here is more of the irresistibly gritty and heart-wringing tough girl Eva Wylie, who was first introduced in Bucket Nut. Eva's down on her luck, banned from what she lives for - the wrestling ring - and drinking herself into the pit. Then things start to develop, with Eva right in the middle of it all. I cannot understand why people keep calling the Eva books mysteries, and her a sleuth. Or moral. Hah!! Eva is your ultimate surly street survivor. She may be in the middle of a mystery, but she isn't trying to straighten anything out but her own life - and not necessarily by legal means. Stubborn, hard-headed, big and mean, Eva is her own worse enemy. But she is as tough and determined as they come, and she is going to take care of herself - and her crew of big and mean junkyard dogs - come what may. Eva finally develops a dream - Musclebound, a gym of her own - and life hands her an advance toward her dream on a platter, then whisks it away. But the dream manages to live on. As all the Eva Wylie books are, this one is sad and funny, and gut-wrenching and just plain impossible to put down. And it also has another of Eva's absolutely smashing wrestling scenes in there, a dose of pure adrenaline-dripping fabulous reading! Not for the squeamish or faint of heart.

a wild and crazy ride... can't wait to read the next...

Just finished "Musclebound", having previously read "Monkey Wrench" (reviewed separately). I am even more confirmed liking this character and series. Eva Wylie is an unusual character, to say the least, and I won't go into the plots as these are available in the other reviews. It's the character that appeals. The novels are told in first-person narrative. You feel like an older, wiser counselor looking over Eva's shoulder, being inside her head. You see what's going on WELL before Eva does, like when she finds a bag full of money in this story but does not realize it's counterfeit 'til WAY after the reader does. It's not about how smart Eva is, but how gutsy. She's been knocked down over and over but she gets back up every time. By the end of each novel Eva has grown a bit further by paradoxically staying herself AND learning some things new. Eva has friends and supporters both true (including THE ENEMY, her nickname for another character in the book) and false (but we're still figuring that out along with her). It's a wild and crazy ride, each novel, and I can't wait to read the next!

Too bad this is the last Eva Wylie book!

I wish there were more Eva Wylie books. This heroine views life from her own desperate background, and her viewpoints are endearing. Her vocabulary is entertaining, with the London slang. It is the character that makes the book, even more than the story. Read all three Eva Wylie books: Bucket Nut, Monkey Wrench, and Musclebound.

An absolutely BRILLIANT creation

Eva Wylie is one of the most unique, fascinating, and memorable characters created in mystery fiction to date! Cody does a terrific job of letting us see many sides to Wylie, and the effect is that Wylie "sticks with us" long after we have put the book down. Wylie is at once rock-hard tough, pitiable, and intelligent (in her own way), and Cody's translation of Wylie's thoughts are at once no-nonsense and brilliantly subtle. The Eva Wylie series is perhaps the best, funniest, and most unique series I have read in a long, long time! Well worth reading all three, and looking forward to many more.

This series just gets better and better!

Eva Wylie's voice is still echoing iin my brain. What a strong character! Eva, the female wrestler known as the London Lassasin, has been barred from wrestling, but she hasn't been beaten. Living in an auto wrecking yard with her attack dogs, Eva is reunited with her sister Simone. A mysterious bag of money introduces us to such a group of well drawn villains that I shudder at the thought of meeting most of them on a street in daylight, let alone night. And then there's Keif, with the "voodoo hands". _Musclebound_ is a tightly woven story full of memorable characters, including a visit or two by Anna Lee, from Liza Cody's other popular series.