The Black Stiletto: Stars & Stripes
The Third Diary
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- $1.99
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Publisher Description
New York Times and USA Today Best-Selling Author
1960: Election Year—The Black Stiletto—a Kennedy girl
It's 1960. The Black Stiletto, in her civilian persona as Judy Cooper, volunteers to work for John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign, only to become involved in a devious behind-the-scenes plot that could change the course of history.
Is the mysterious Eastern European man she briefly dated associated with a Cuban/Soviet spy ring?
Closer to home, the Stiletto must challenge dangerous tongs in Chinatown after befriending a teenage boy whose father was killed by the gangs. She soon discovers what a different—and very deadly—world exists in lower Manhattan. In the present, Martin, the Stiletto's son, must deal with his mother's worsening Alzheimer's symptoms, his own mental health issues, and the dilemma of whether or not to reveal his family's secrets to the new woman in his life.
Meanwhile, his daughter, Gina, continues to bring trouble to herself, exhibiting behavior that suggests she is closer in spirit to her grandmother than Martin would like. Every major character, past and present, experiences a turning point in this third chapter of The Black Stiletto Series.
Perfect for fans of vigilante justice
While all of the novels in The Black Stiletto Series stand on their own and can be read in any order, the publication sequence is:
The Black Stiletto
The Black Stiletto: Black & White
The Black Stiletto: Stars & Stripes
The Black Stiletto: Secrets & Lies
The Black Stiletto: Endings & Beginnings
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the start of this disappointing thriller from Benson (Evil Hours), 48-year-old Martin Talbot learns from a confessional letter that his 72-year-old, Alzheimer's-afflicted mother, Judy, wrote years earlier that she was the Black Stiletto, "ne of the most famous people on the planet," a costumed vigilante who began to operate in New York City in 1958. Extracts from Judy's diary tell her story. When puberty hits, Judy Cooper finds she has superhuman vision and hearing as well as an "intuition" that can tell her whether a person is good or bad. After being sexually abused by her stepfather, she flees her Texas home for the Big Apple, where she finds someone willing to teach her boxing. When the gangster she falls for is killed, Judy, inspired by reading a Batman comic, adopts the persona of the costumed hero to take on the mob. Fans of Alan Moore's work incorporating superheroes into a realistic world will find this similar effort doesn't measure up.
