Fat Tuesday

This was my first Sandra Brown book but they'll be lots more! What an exciting, engaging, interesting story and characters described in a wonderful, all-encompasing manner. I loved it!

Book club book: It was an enjoyable read. Betrayals, bad cops, bad guys, sex, love. Revenge it’s got it all. Favorite character for me was Dredd

Incredible book couldn’t put it down

Great story and likeable character s. Couldn't put it down.. Would have made a great movie. I will read more of her work.

From the book cover- Burke Basile is a cop with nothing left to lose. Responsible for his partner's death, his marriage and his career over, he focuses on his nemesis, Pinkie Duvall, a flamboyant attorney who helps killers evade justice. Burke's shocking revenge centers around kidnapping Remy, the laywer's trophy wife. But Burke hasn't planned on the electric attraction he'll feel for this desperate woman, who rose from the slums of New Orleans to marry a man she can nevery love. Nor could he have ever predicted the fierce duel that will explode amid the Mardi Gras madness, as the clock ticks toward midnight of Fat Tuesday-when all masks are stripped away, and Burke must confront his own ugly secret. The publisher's review quotes "Fat Tuesday" as one of Sandra Brown's best romantic thrillers, but I beg to differ. But I will start out with what I could find that was positive. It started out really great, because it didn't explain right away what had actually happened with Burke Basile's partner. I really liked the character of Basile, who was a cop that was involved with an unfortunate incident that resulted in the death of his partner. He also was part of an unfortunate marriage where he finds his wife cheating on him....and she's not very remorseful...a certain word starting with a b comes to mind. The author also kept the reader guessing. So yes, there were parts I enjoyed and liked mainly since it was fluently written and the lead characters were flawed and sometimes endearing, not withstanding the stereo-types. And now to the things that really annoyed me. First of all was the character Pinkie Duvall. I hated this character from the get go. Pinkie Duval, a 50 something attorney who gets all the bad guys off the hook and is a bad guy himself. He allows his bad guy clients work for him doing general bad guy stuff and is involved in the drug trade. Pinkie is also pedophile in my opinion. He sends a girl, Remy, who is the daughter of a prosititue who has left her children on the street to a private Catholic school in hope that she will stay pure for him. He marries her right after high school graduation and treats her like a posession and is obsessive(and that is a very light word to use to describe Pinkie's feelings about Remy) about her. Remy has a little sister and to take care of her, because Pinkie is worried that the sister will take Remy's attention away from him, sends her to the same school. This story line made me sick and it wasn't convincing to me. The overall story might have been more interesting if there were more character development and more action. Also, I thought the romance between Remy and Basile was flat and didn't have much time to develop. Definitely not very believable to me. As far as the writing goes I picked up many of the typical trappings of this genre, especially towards the conclusion. The more I read, the more selective I get I suppose. These days I'm looking for originality and authenticity, and I didn't find it here. This book was just ok....an easy read with the same old plot where the good guy comes out glorious after a great deal fighting and trauma. I am having a hard time rating it on Amazon's criteria. I thought the book was ok, but that is 3 stars and I definitely don't see it as a 3 star book. SOOOOOO....I am rating it 3 stars but I hope people actually read my review and know I think that the book feels more like a 2 star but I wouldn't go as far as saying I didn't like the book.

I read a lot of reviews. In fact, I try to read all the 2 and 1 star reviews before I ever start the book, but sometimes I miss some of the three stars. So I just went through them, for kicks and giggles. OMG. I didn't put this book down until it was done. Sandra Brown captured the "under-culture" that exists in New Orleans. She also captured the swamps and bayous and I loved every second of it. Louisiana is not for the faint of heart and her descriptions and characters reflected that. She also does a very good job of developing her characters. They rarely, and I DO mean rarely say or do something that doesn't mesh with what the reader already knows about them. The same goes for her secondary characters. In this case, the character of Bardo exemplified that ability to describe and then hold that character true to her description. Scary individual, but so real, you could smell his breath. I don't waste time on describing a book's plot. That's up to the blurb. Plus I leave it to other readers to do that. Personally, I hate spoilers. I want to be surprised, I want to think on my own two feet and I don't want things spoon-fed to me. And I want the REAL story, not some puff piece about two people meeting each other, falling in love, and kissing on the last page. No thank you. As I said ... REAL people, REAL story. At present I a re-reading the Sandra Browns in my list. I've purchased them all, I think. And I know some I haven't reviewed, and some I haven't read. So this is like a kid going through her Easter Basket and finding surprises, so it is onto the next Sandra Brown that I forgot to review when I read it the first time.

I have read a dozen of Sandra Brown’s thrillers—FAT TUESDAY is near the top. Brown brings her prime characters to life early in the narrative. Pinkie Duvall is the corrupt and unscrupulous but powerful defense attorney and drug-dealing business man. Detective Burke Basile is the steadfast, honest New Orleans Police Department cop who suffers each day from the trauma of the accidental killing of his best friend and fellow detective during a drug bust gone bad. He has sworn to get even with Duvall who he blames for his friend’s death. Duvall is married to Remy, a gorgeous very young trophy wife who has no life other than the controlling one placed on her by her rich and powerful husband. The plot is not unique, but to Brown’s credit she keeps the reader in a state of suspense from the very first chapter to the story’s last page. She has taken a so-so plot and turned it into a fast-paced thriller with a room full of deeply troubled characters who see no way out of their dilemmas but still hope for a miracle. Sandra Brown, a successful romance writer, has turned the corner and proved she can write mystery thrillers with the best of them. I rate Fat Tuesday a strong 4-star read; you’ll enjoy it.

I read this book for the first time in 1998 and I was a Freshman at LSU. I think I've read it at least once or twice a year since then lol. Ms. Brown describes the characters so well that you can actually almost see them as real people. You can even see yourself in the scenes she describes. I also get a chuckle thinking of the fact that there is a main protagonist in a story that comes from Shreveport, LA where my folks are from. Great book all around. Give it a read if you haven't already ☺️

Loved it ! Another great suspense

サンドラ・ブラウンの作品は、本当に多彩である。 美しいヒロインと多少陰のある男性とのロマンスを軸としながら、 常にさまざまな設定で読者を楽しませてくれる。 通常なら序盤から主役の男女が出会い、憎みながらも惹かれ合う・・・ というストーリー展開がメインのブラウン作品からすると、 本書ではの2人が実質的に接触するのはかなり後半になってから。 また、ほかの作品と比較すると『憎』のとげとげしさが少ないので、 ロマンスの部分を安心して読んでいられる。 序盤からのヒロインの描写で感じていたことだが、 後半バイユーの沼地やクレオールが舞台になり、 ますますアンドリュースの作品を連想させる雰囲気だった。

I enjoyed the book. Great story. Sandra Brown at her best. This should be enough to post the review thanks

Twists and unexpected turns makes for great reading of this book. I love everything she writes. Nothing is predictable with her!

I first found this author in a book (Rainwater) bought from a book sale to raise funds for a local charity. Good book. I quite liked what it was about and went looking for more. I like the storyline in Fat Tuesday, but as all bad language is a no-no to me, it was spoiled. Its had enough to hear it spoken, but see it in print is not necessary. Hence, the lack of a star.