Reviewer: Lori Graham
Title: Unzipped
Author: Lois Greiman
Publisher: Bantam/Dell
ISBN: 0-440-24262-2
Release Date: May 2005
Genre/Sub-genre: Romantic Suspense
Year/Setting: Contemporary/Los Angeles
Overall rating: 4.5
Sexual content rating: Sexual
Lois's Website: www.loisgreiman.com
Chrissy McMullen is a woman who hasn’t had many breaks in life. She was raised by a stern father with three older, brawny brothers and a worrying mother. These four very strong men helped to make her a pretty tough woman but also gave her a segued sense of what manhood means. This led to a string of failed romances and then a decision to give up on men.
However, in order to help men change without getting involved with them, she becomes a psychologist. After twelve years of working as a cocktail waitresses and taking college classes, she finally achieves this dream and decides to put out her shingle in Los Angeles. She has several very odd patients but the one that she thinks she is really making headway with proceeds to crater her world. He comes to his normal session with a bottle of wine and lascivious ideas. However, he can’t be bad because after all "Bomb" is a football hero.
While being chased around her desk by him (with him in partial state of undress) is mind boggling, having him drop dead in that state is mind shattering. Of course, that doesn’t top having Lt. Rivera think she killed him. Who but a doctor/shrink would give him Viagra without checking to see if he had a heart condition.
Chrissy, however, has worked too hard to get where she is in life and she isn’t about to give up that progress. She wants more out of life than to have everything end now and end up sharing a cell in prison with someone unfriendly. So, she sets out on her own to find out who committed the murder and set the stage for her to take the blame.
Her investigation takes many twists and turns throughout the course of discovery and those twists bring her closer to the Lieutenant and to losing her own life.
Lois Greiman weaves a very interesting mystery for Chrissy and us, the readers. I really enjoyed the twists and turns that she took while filling them with intrigue and humor. She starts each chapter with a whimsical saying such as "maybe curiosity did kill your cat…but it wouldn’t hurt to keep an eye on the neighbor’s rottweiler just the same" and then attributes them to one of the people in Chrissy’s life or even Chrissy herself. The only thing I found a bit distracting was that some of the language got a bit crude but not out of character.
Chrissy’s determination to make something out of her life is something I can relate to. She becomes very frustrated by running up against walls time after time and that frustration makes her even more determined. You find yourself really rooting for Chrissy after being accused, almost raped, beaten up and almost killed and still never giving up in that determination.
The sequel to Chrissy’s story Unplugged is coming out in Spring of 2006 and it will be worth the anticipation I’m sure if it is anything like Unzipped.
Lori
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