“THE LADIES TEMPERANCE CLUB’S FAREWELL
TOUR”
by Jeff Lee
REVIEWED
BY: Books4Tomorrow
OVERVIEW
Vonda Mae Ables could never hurt a soul. Now
she’s on the lam in a huge RV, with her best friends, gallons of Chardonnay and
a stiff in the freezer.
Vonda has suffered her alcoholic boyfriend's abuse for twenty years. But when she finally stands up for herself, she overdoes it and crushes his skull with a football trophy. Rather than turn herself in, she enlists her friends to help ditch the body. They stash the boyfriend in the freezer of his humongous RV and take off for Arizona, planning a quiet desert burial. Unfortunately, the plan goes more sideways with every mile. Vonda finally finds a likely place to plant the dead SOB, but now he's frozen solid and stuck in the freezer.
Exhausted from their day of digging and unsuccessfully trying to extricate him, the women stop at a local cafe. While they're drinking dinner, a gang of Harley-riding repo guys makes off with the RV and a Good Samaritan reports the theft. When the police arrive to investigate Vonda panics, knowing if the cops recover the RV and discover what's in the freezer, she might have to turn that old trophy on herself.
Imagine THELMA AND LOUISE meets Lucy & Ethel -- It's about good friends, good wine, manslaughter and the lengths we’ll go for those we care about.
Vonda has suffered her alcoholic boyfriend's abuse for twenty years. But when she finally stands up for herself, she overdoes it and crushes his skull with a football trophy. Rather than turn herself in, she enlists her friends to help ditch the body. They stash the boyfriend in the freezer of his humongous RV and take off for Arizona, planning a quiet desert burial. Unfortunately, the plan goes more sideways with every mile. Vonda finally finds a likely place to plant the dead SOB, but now he's frozen solid and stuck in the freezer.
Exhausted from their day of digging and unsuccessfully trying to extricate him, the women stop at a local cafe. While they're drinking dinner, a gang of Harley-riding repo guys makes off with the RV and a Good Samaritan reports the theft. When the police arrive to investigate Vonda panics, knowing if the cops recover the RV and discover what's in the freezer, she might have to turn that old trophy on herself.
Imagine THELMA AND LOUISE meets Lucy & Ethel -- It's about good friends, good wine, manslaughter and the lengths we’ll go for those we care about.
REVIEW
Bursts
of laughter punctuated the quiet of our household as I devoured chapter after
chapter of this hilarious book into the wee hours of the morning. It takes a
lot to get a really good laugh out of me, but author Jeff Lee did it with ease!
Meet
Jack Thibideau, the boyfriend who meets his demise early on in the book. Jack
hates large women, mousy women, cops, game show hosts, most teachers, actors,
professionals, guys who make more than him, guys who make less than him, and a
whole bunch of other things. Now let me introduce you to the Ladies Temperance
Club members. There’s Vonda, Jack’s girlfriend, who considers herself a leader
in fashion - though her friends might not completely agree with this; Kay, Vonda’s
closest friend for more years than she cares to remember; and Francine – a
large, honest woman who lives life to the fullest and don’t give a crap about
what anybody thinks. They love their wine, they love each other, but they’re
not too fond of Jack.
Ingeniously
written, with plenty of wit, side-splitting humor and double entendres, the
journey these three extraordinary women undertake, isn’t only about burying a
body in the desert, but also explores how far the best of friends will go for
each other. Trust me, when you’re in a bit of a pickle, like oh….bludgeoning
your abusive, cheating scum of a man to death, these are the ladies you’ll want
on your side. And they’re a riot to boot!
If the
blurb didn’t get you rushing out to your nearest bookstore or over to Amazon to
get your hands on this gem of a book, then most likely nothing will. But here’s
an excerpt which I hope would convince you:
Of course she felt bad about what happened;
few people on the planet actually deserved to be done in by another, and there
were miles of difference between Jack’s simple, larcenous no-goodnikness and,
say, Hitler, Saddam Hussein or your everyday, run-of-the-mill corporate raider.
But looking at it in the light of a new
morning, Vonda managed to convince herself that physically removing Jack
Thibideau from the census rolls was really an act of self-defense.
Because after living with that bitter,
abusive, impotent, alcoholic and thieving bastard for twenty years, it was
really a case of kill or be killed. If Vonda hadn’t exercised a little extreme
prejudice on Jack, she would have had to do herself in, to finally be free of
his special brand of long-term charm, goodness and warmth.
And like those old Highway Safety public
service commercials used to say, “The life you save may be your own.”
Admittedly,
the title of the book didn’t grab me and if I hadn’t read the blurb, I probably
would’ve given it a miss. But by the end of the book, it felt as though I’ve
been on one heck of an adventure with some of the most stunningly real
characters – no wait, make those ‘friends’ - I’ve ever only come across in few
other books. We’re talking supreme entertainment here.
“The
Ladies Temperance Club’s Farewell Tour” exceeded my highest expectations and
therefore I enthusiastically recommend it with a richly-deserved 5 stars!
*Contains
profanity and sexual content.
READ more REVIEWS
“The
Ladies Temperance Club’s Farewell Tour” by Jeff Lee has 8 reviews on GoodReads.
Read it here – http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10903019-the-ladies-temperance-club-s-farewell-tour
PURCHASE
LINKS
MEET author JEFF LEE
Born in New York State, Jeff Lee was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area
and has spent his entire writing career in Los Angeles.
For more than thirty years he has been a copywriter and creative director
for some of the advertising industry’s most recognizable agencies, winning
numerous awards for his creativity. None of those ad agencies are still in
business, but Jeff appears to have an alibi.
Trained as a cook in the Army, he still enjoys being creative in the
kitchen and admits that few things in life compare with the thrill of
discovering you have just given a nasty case of food poisoning to 140 heavily
armed men.
Jeff lives about halfway between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, in a
house he shares with his two sons and a cat that’s part golden retriever.
AUTHOR
LINK
Website
- http://jeffleewriter.weebly.com
