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Shirley Lyle is desperate to take control back of her life. An aging, overweight prostitute, her recent run-ins with a supposed serial killer and a family of drug lords have put her at a crossroads. Having killed someone to protect herself, Shirley and her friend Ulyana the Russian Stripper start a personal movement called Viva the Revolution. Viva the Revolution means not taking anyone’s crap and not letting people control others because they think they should. But immediately, Shirley’s quest for vengeance becomes a tangled knot of misunderstandings and dangerous liaisons. Having stolen a million dollars from an aging drug lord and pursued by all manner of creeps, clients, and criminals, Shirley’s movement is at as much risk from the nagging self-doubt in her head as it is from the dangerous men trying to kill her.
Spinning off from the author’s own Baer Creighton series, Shirley’s adventures start immediately in hot water. New readers may be a little confused by some of the references and the sudden speed of the narrative, but it also serves to set a pace that it thoroughly maintains through every single chapter. Despite Shirley’s occupation, there tends to be more violence than sex in this book, but that is certainly a conscious choice on not just the author but the protagonist. Full of action, danger, and some surprisingly frank reflection on self-deprecation, there’s also a subtle layer of comedy as all of the dangerous elements of the story turn against one another under false pretenses and incorrect assumptions. That tension all builds up to a climax that will be sure to surprise and delight readers and leave them ready for more.