XS: An Allie Armington Mystery

by Louise Gaylord

Book Overview

There'ss a Bad Apple in the Big Apple The trouble started with a call from her sister, a supermodel, in New York City. The next thing she knew, Allie Armington, young, bright, successful and slightly... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0972022740
• ISBN13: 9780972022743
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Little Moose Press
• Length: 267 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

What Allie won't do for her sister...

With the first Allie Armington mystery under my belt, it's time to move to installment #2... Xs: An Allie Armington Mystery by Louise Gaylord. For those who missed my review of Anacacho, I was offered the three Allie Armington novels by the publisher. I'm finding myself really liking Gaylord's work. I don't think Xs was quite as tight as Anacacho, but it was still very enjoyable. Allie gets a call from her supermodel sister asking for $20000 in cash. It appears to be an emergency of some sort, and Allie transfers the funds. But she (and her sister) quickly find out that it was a scam for some laser surgery that was never performed (but that her sister swears actually happened). She was talked into the surgery by her wild and hard-partying roommate Carolina Montoya, but they can't get any additional information from her, as she's been murdered in a rather gruesome manner. Allie has a hard time just walking away from something like this, so she takes a short leave from her job as an attorney and starts to dig. It appears that Montoya was part of a crime ring involving prostitution and drugs, and she ended up on the wrong end of an exchange. The only way that the NYPD can get into the group is to use Allie as a substitute for her sister so she can get insider info. Discovery could lead to her own death, but she's unable to say no when Bill Cotton, her DEA boyfriend and mystery man, is also found to be part of the crime ring. But is he working for the feds or has he turned? Can she trust him with her life, or is she just a pawn for him? As with Anacacho, I had a hard time putting down the book. The plot seemed less solid than her first novel, as the whole drug ring/Cotton situation was muddled and confusing. At the end, I still wasn't quite sure what side Cotton was on, but perhaps that was the idea. The plastic surgery scam was also a bit of a stretch, in that lending a family member $20K when it nearly taps you out, *and* they won't tell you why they need it, was hard to swallow. But even with those issues, I stayed up far past my normal lights-out time, knowing that I'd get a later start to my next day as a result. I'm definitely looking forward to the third installment, which was the original reason why the publisher contacted me. Some things are worth working for. :)

They don't all live in Texas

This second episode in the mystery series begins very much as the first one does, with a phone call. This time it's Angela, Allie's supermodel sister in New York City, who desperately needs a large amount of cash wired to a bank account. Allie accommodates without question, but later makes her way to Manhattan to figure out what's really going on. Turns out Angela's gotten in with the wrong (though exceedingly upscale) crowd and has also been the victim of a plastic surgery scam. As if those situations weren't bad enough: her roommate Caroline is murdered in her bedroom, probably as part of a drug and prostitution ring. Allie, the quintessential attorney, ships her sister off to Texas for safe keeping, then works with the local authorities to help unveil the perpetrators -- thinly disguised as her own sister. The investigation leads her to some sexy masquerade parties at "The Castle" on the New Jersey coast and eventually to one of those stereotypically lavish mansions in Greenwich, Connecticut. And wouldn't you know it? DEA agent Bill Cotton, the man who confounds her but makes her melt in her shoes all the same, is somehow assigned to the case as well. What are the odds? How does he show up just when he's needed? And which side is he on this time? Will Allie ever be able to believe anything he tells her? Can she control the profound yearning she feels whenever she sees him? And can she discover the brains behind the "Castle" operation before she becomes a victim herself? "Xs" begins quicker than the first installment in the series and has a plot that is just as tightly woven; but in my opinion, the denouement seems to fizzle out before it's fully resolved. Still, Gaylord gives us an intriguing reading experience that boils down to the basics of life: lawyers, guns, money; sex, drugs ... and jazz.

Never a dull moment

Reviewed by Beverly Pechin for Reader Views (2/07) What do you get when you wrap the thrills of a mystery writer like Agatha Christie up with the hip style of Janet Evanovich and toss in a little Nora Roberts romance? You get Louise Gaylord. While her style of writing is all her own, the minute I started reading "Xs" I knew she had a combination of talents much like these other well-known authors. The spunk of her characters, Allie Armington and her sister Angela, create a never ending thrill throughout the book. As Angela's roommate is found dead after Allie receives an odd phone call from Angela asking for twenty grand "right now," Allie is pulled into this odd twist of tales between her gorgeous model sister, her roommate and a group of "higher ups" that get what they want. Add to the thrill and mystery a sexy and even more mysterious Texan who once took Allie's heart for a spin and you have some real action going on! As Allie, a former DA turned boring old lawyer, delves into helping the local authorities figure out a huge cartel by becoming a mole for them she begins to realize exactly what danger she's in. Not sure who to trust or where to turn, she keeps some of her information secret to save her own life. Twists and turns, wild parties and sinister men, Allie's life becomes anything but boring as she attends masquerades that boast the highest of high profiled men. Trying to figure out who killed her sister's roommate becomes only one of the dilemmas she faces as she literally fears for her life when she gets in too deep. Will the one man she's always carried a torch for be the one man who can save her or is he really working on the other side? And what exactly are these huge masquerade parties for, other than trading women like prostitutes? "Xs" contains constant action and never a dull moment. You will be encompassed by the storyline immediately. Hard to put down and even harder to truly figure out until the end, the author does a wonderful job at creating an intricate web of deceit and surprise. I can't wait for the next Allie Armington mystery to come out!