The Red Hot Empress

by Meredith Blevins

Book Overview

Blevins succeeds in weaving humor, zany characters, and the occult into an entertaining mystery with serious undertones." -Publisher's Weekly "... Meredith Blevins is a magician who changes words into... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0765307812
• ISBN13: 9780765307811
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: Forge
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.9" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

very good mystery--worth a read

The entire series is good--in the first book Annie deals with her past and comes to grips with it. Book 2, she really gets going on her adventures. Book 3 has the most complex plot. Blevins also has a way with descriptions--in one sentence you see Chinatown, you smell it, you're there. The gypsy lore is perfectly done--you see parts of it without a lot of extraneous detail and it's all completely believable. I really enjoyed how Annie's lovelife developed in this book--it matured and left the baggage behind. The zany aspect isn't gone however; Mina has it in spades, in her lovelife and lore, which fits perfectly. There's enough action to make the pages turn--good, quick read, an excellent mystery for an afternoon.

Hot all over!

This is a great, fun read with a lot of heart. Annie Szabo is back for her third trip through Mystery Land, and she's brought the whole endearing crowd of Usual Suspects. Plus a few more. Madame Mina, Annie's Gypsy mother-in-law, is back as the most unorthodox sidekick in mystery history, and Blevins has thrown in some excellent and compelling additions. Blevins has a talent for writing totally believable characters and Jimmy Qi, who debuts in this novel, is charming and engaging. Annie's clan goes through a few usual and quite a few outrageous life changes, and manage to land on their feet (though not unscathed). The Szabos never do anything halfway and this story is no exception. I won't spoil it for anybody who hasn't read it yet, but the fireworks don't stop from beginning to end. Love, laughter, hope, help, magic, danger and family collide in one glittering malestrom. Another of Blevins's talents is weaving in absorbing tidbits from various cultural influences, and without being heavy-handed or cloying. Here we've got Gypsies loose in Chinatown being chased by the Feds and it all makes perfect sense. If you love a good mystery, buy this book. (I still can't believe these people are not real.)