Tony
posts on 3/1/2011 6:45:35 PM
One series that needed better people behind it - the Write Way editions are good looking but w/some editorial glitches that a bigger pub would have ironed out.
Saying that - these books are grrrrreeat! (my name is Tony!) Real people. Like that you dont have 100 chapters that are a page long. Dont know whats up with that in newer mysteries but once a chapter starts up I want some meat to it. Cat Austen and Victor Cardenas are my favorite pair since Nick and Nora - hate that these books stopped @ Raise the Dead. Like the "take" on Atlantic City - Rubino doesnt gloss it over. Fine series.
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Nicky H
posts on 2/11/2011 4:11:59 PM
Check in to grab some recommendations - read the first two books and got the last one but cant find books 3 or 4.
Anyway - what a ride. Love Cat. Love that mom of hers. Imagine sitting down to dinner with them? Rubino was really on to something here - and the Jersey shore setting has a great feel to it - wish it was a tv show
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Paul W
posts on 1/31/2011 1:04:42 PM
Checked these out - good plots kept me guessing - liked the crime unit and the lady lawyer - Lauren who keeps busting Victors ba_ _ s. Lot of characters and a lot going on but easy to follow. Plot Twist slammed me with that twist. Didnt see that coming.
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F. Welles
posts on 1/14/2011 9:20:21 AM
LMAO! Darcy-with-a-badge! How true!!
One of the series would luv to see kindled!
The Holmes and Austen tie-ins are fun too since am a fan of both.
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Jo
posts on 1/12/2011 5:00:01 PM
Come here to get good quik roundups of books for my library runs - and had to LOL @ Ingrids "Darcy with a badge" comment!!!! EXACTLY! Luv when Victor stands up when a lady comes into the room and is so formal! Because you know there is that OTHER side!
Went back to read Fruitcake over the holidays because it is a fun Christmas mystery - and like someone else cant find Cake job!!??
Are Rubinos books on Kindle?
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Liliane
posts on 11/4/2010 7:20:00 AM
Grabbed five of these books @ the library and tore thru them - W.O.W. Great fun! Like if The Sopranos had a branch of the family made up mostly of cops. Trying to think if this was a movie who would play Victor - sexy beast!
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Lee M.
posts on 10/7/2010 4:26:20 PM
I also came into this series by way of reading Boardwalk Empire and getting hooked on its "old Atlantic City" setting. Rubino gives a picture of the new-but-not-improved Atlantic City as one of the Jersey Shore backdrops for this clever and multidimentional series.
Cat Austen and Lt Victor Cardenas are a widow making ends meet as a local reporter and a major crimes detective with a dark side. Solving crimes in the Atlantic City & vicinity area. The series has a lot of plusses especially the writing - full of rhythm and style - and the dialogue is so smart and clever that you may have to look a few things up to "get it"! Of all I think I liked the Christmas book the best with its Sharpton-like bit player and all those Santas running around but they are all worth scouting around for since they may all be out of print
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Marti
posts on 9/27/2010 5:08:21 PM
Me too! Looking for 'Jersey' mysteries or thrillers because sort of got hooked on the Boardwalk Empire series and a few names turned up including Rubinos. Local library had all except Deadly Morsels - Cake Job so I read them in order. Very impressive! What really got me is how there were 'threads' that ran through the early books that were tied up in later ones - to me that is what 'series' means - love it in TV series AND in book series. Such lifelike characters - the kind of books that have you 'casting' them in a TV movie!
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Ingrid
posts on 9/3/2010 11:02:42 AM
I would like to add my two cents about this very compelling series by Jane Rubino. I came to her series in reverse. I first read Lady Vernon and Her Daughter, a beautiful adaptation of an early Jane Austen work written by Rubino and her daughter and heard that she had written a series so I ferreted them out and got all but one (Cake Job).
Cat Austen is a Jane-Austen loving amateur sleuth with a large, meddling and lovingly conceived Italian family of older brothers - one priest and five policemen - whose job as a small town reporter brings her into the orbit of Lieutenant Victor Cardenas who is the sexiest guy in fiction - Darcy with a badge. It would be hard for me to pick a favorite - Plot Twist had the most amazing plot twist and Raise the Dead was the most heartbreaking (with a funny subplot). As someone here wrote, if you like Janet Evanovich but want it a little more clever, better written, more humane, search out this series. You will not be sorry.
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danni
posts on 8/2/2010 1:33:53 PM
I will "me too" the above. Like Luci it was the Evanovich news that made me think about Rubino's Jersey Shore series. There were a handful of authors who came out with Jersey books but Rubino seemed to be the most flesh-and-blood. Yes - far above Evanovich as a storyteller. Cat Austen is a resourceful and believable character and the tenuous romance that develops between her and Victor over the course of the books is a delight. Love her mom, love those brothers, love her kids and Ellice - even minor characters are three dimensional. Cannot name a favorite but "Fruitcake" is my favorite Christmas mystery.
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