MONKEY WRENCH - Hardcover

Cody, Liza

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0701140275 ISBN 13: 9780701140274

Publisher: Random House UK, 1994

Synopsis

Eva Wylie, the heavyweight wrestler heroine of "Bucket Nut", returns. She has a big mouth and large biceps, but meets her match in tiny, tenacious Crystal, a street companion from the past. Crystal's prostitute sister has been beaten to death and she's seeking revenge.

About this title

From Booklist

Eva Wylie is the London Assassin, a hulking female wrestler whose face--and body--could stop a train. Eva is no mental giant, but her brawn and "mental discipline" make up for the shortcoming, at least in Eva's judgment. She's worked her way out of a horror-filled, abusive childhood to make a name for herself on the London wrestling circuit and has built herself a lifestyle that may seem dismal and devoid of creature comforts to some but to Eva is just fine, thank you very much. Now Eva's old friend Crystal (aka Monkey Wrench) is demanding Eva's help in tracking down the villain who killed Crystal's sister, a down-and-out prostitute. But Eva is saddled with troubles of her own: a steroidally overdosed maniac named California Carl is out to get her, she has been kicked out of the gym where she trains, a bunch of out-of-shape streetwalkers want her to teach them self-defense, and the deserted storefront she appropriates for a gym is turning into a house of ill repute. Cody's writing is wonderfully schizophrenic, blending nonchalant humor and the heartrending pathos of Eva's tough-talking, tenderhearted, kick-me-again lucklessness with the brutal realism of life among the depraved and deprived. A terrific book that's mesmerizing, disquieting, and full of violence, anger, pain, humor, mercy, and hope. Emily Melton

From Publishers Weekly

Like Miss Marple and Lord Peter Wimsey, Eva Wylie, introduced in Bucket Nut, is a character of such convincing reality, it's hard to believe she doesn't exist somewhere. She also, like them, inhabits a fully believable world, but hers revolves around a gym?she's a villainous female wrestler?and two vicious watch dogs in the toughest part of London. Nicknamed the London Lassassin, the deeply moral Eva finds her personal code put to the test when the diminutive, monkey-faced Crystal, the closest thing to a friend Eva will allow herself, asks for help in finding and punishing her prostitute sister's killer. Eva reluctantly agrees?and ends up paying a high personal price. What propels this unconventional mystery (in which Cody's other series heroine, Anna Lee, briefly appears) is less the need to discover whodunit than the power of Eva's voice as she tells her story: menacing, barely in control of her rage, but also vulnerable, funny and on the side of the angels. The pace is breathless and jittery, much like the London Lassassin herself, who is a singular treasure.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House UK
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0701140275
• ISBN 13: 9780701140274
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256