Hard Women: A Cat Marsala Mystery - Hardcover

D'Amato, Barbara

3.52

83 ratings by Goodreads

9780684195643: Hard Women: A Cat Marsala Mystery

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 068419564X ISBN 13: 9780684195643

Publisher: Scribner, 1993

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While investigating prostitution in the Windy City, Chicago journalist Cat Marsala befriends a young escort named Sandra, whose murder she must soon unravel

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About the Author:

Barbara D'Amato was the 1999-2000 president of Mystery Writers of America. D'Amato is also a past president of Sisters in Crime International. She writes a mystery series starring Chicago freelance investigative reporter Cat Marsala, a series starring Chicago patrol cops Suze Figueroa and Norm Bennis, and standalone novels. D'Amato is a playwright, novelist, and crime researcher. Her research on the Dr. John Branion murder case formed the basis for a segment on Unsolved Mysteries, and she appeared on the program. Her musical comedy The Magic Man and the children's musical The Magic of Young Houdini, written with husband Anthony D'Amato, played in Chicago and London. Their Prohibition-era musical comedy RSVP Broadway, which played in Chicago in 1980, was named an "event of particular interest" by Chicago magazine. A native of Michigan, she has been a resident of Chicago for many years. D'Amato has been a columnist for the Sisters in Crime newsletter and Mystery Scene magazine. She has worked as an assistant surgical orderly, carpenter for stage magic illusions, assistant tiger handler, stage manager, researcher for attorneys in criminal cases, and she occasionally teaches mystery writing to Chicago police officers.

From Publishers Weekly:

D'Amato turns in another excellent Cat Marsala mystery (after Hard Luck ) despite the tension-destroying, flash-forward opening in which free-lance journalist Cat finds prostitute Sandra Lupica, her houseguest, dead in the alley behind her apartment building. Cat first meets Sandra while seeking women to interview for her "TV essay" on prostitution in Chicago; later her research includes a guided tour with Ross Wardon, a helpful but gratingly sexist vice cop who knows red-light life from streetwalkers up to high-priced escort services. Cat is getting a sense of the varied nature of the prostitution scene when Sandra shows up on her doorstep with her clothing torn, a lump on her head and a fat lip caused by "My boyfr--my father." She'll grant an interview if Cat will put her up temporarily. When the police show only a lukewarm interest in how Sandra went from being safe inside the apartment to dead on the pavement, Cat plunges even deeper into a world where it's tough to tell who your friends are. Although her tale carries a determined social conscience, D'Amato spins an engrossing story, convincing us again that Cat is as likable as she is clever.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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