Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Alibi - Teri Woods


Teri Woods was an author new to me. I 'read' Alibi in audio format.

It's 1986 and two young men plan to rob a stash house belonging to one of the biggest drug kingpins in Philadelphia. When things go wrong, one of the robbers needs an alibi. And that alibi is provided by Daisy, a stripper desperate for money. But when the FBI and the drug lord start investigating, it looks like providing that alibi was the worst thing Daisy could have done. Who will get to her first?

The story is graphic and seems to overly delight in parlaying gritty, down and dirty details. Daisy is drugged, raped and sodomized by more than one person, yet when she wakes up toddles off to work at the massage parlour where she dispenses sexual favours for money? Because she needs the money so badly? Woods is a former legal secretary/paralegal in Philadelphia, who has taken up writing. Alibi almost feels like she cobbled together details from a number of cases and put it out as a book. Tangents, such as the long, long description of Daisy's mother's life (really she's just a bit player in the book) feel like filler. Not an author I will seek out again.

Paula Jai Parker-Martin is the reader. She has a wonderful voice, rich and throaty. Male and female characters are easily differentiated and possess distinctive voices. I did find the music at the beginning of the disc a bit overpowering and had to rewind a bit to re listen to the opening chapter as I found her voice a bit quick at the beginning. Her voice seemed to accurately capture street cadence, tones and language. An excellent reader.

You can listen to an excerpt of Alibi.

Others had some differing opinions. Check out what Crystal at My Reading Room and Pat from Here and There thought.

2 comments:

bermudaonion said...

This doesn't sound like a book I would enjoy - thanks for the review.

Anonymous said...

that's when your wrong, it is a really good book. you would not want to put it down once you start reading.