Book Chat: Killer Cinderella & The Winner

By Elizabeth Parker

Killer Cinderella, by Simon Shaw, is a black-humored comic romp about a man, Mark Harvey, who is a banker and member of the Civil War Reenactment Society. Frustrated by his neurotic and overweight wife, Maddy, who nags him and ultimately engages in an affair, he accidentally kills her in a fit of rage. Since he has a suicidal lodger, an overly inquisitive neighbor, Maddy’s fervently feminist best friend, and Maddy’s lover hanging inconveniently about, he casts about for a way to hide Maddy’s body and get out of the fix he’s in. He temporarily hides his wife’s body in the basement freezer. Then when her lover comes by at night, he frantically tries something desperate; he places Maddy’s blonde wig on his head, and impersonates her through the window. Fortunately, the lover is near-sighted and somewhat foolish, so the impersonation works.

This incident gives Mark an idea for how to get Maddy’s girlfriend off his back. He dresses completely as Maddy, using her clothes from before she gained weight. He uses her cosmetics on his face. In the process he discovers that he quite likes the way he looks as a woman. He then gets in the car and drives by her friend’s bakery, honking the horn so her friend can see her alive. The ruse works, though he endangers himself by wearing her glasses too long, which limits his vision. On the way home, he has an encounter with his neighbor, Reg Talbot. Reg has never seen Maddy close up, so he believes that Mark is Maddy. He finds himself quite attracted to the new and improved Maddy. Mark is forced to invite Reg in for a drink, and before he knows what is happening, he is being kissed by Reg. He fights Reg off, and gets him to leave.

By now, Mark realizes how nice looking and remarkable a woman he makes. This causes him to create a personality for himself as “Madeleine”. He sees himself not as a crossdressed man, but as a woman. He finds reading women’s magazines enthralling, a whole new sensational world. He enjoys himself at a women’s shoe store, feeling relaxed and comfortable in the company of elegant and refined women like himself.

Reg successfully invites Madeleine to dinner and Mark arrives dressed in a lovely dark-blue velvet dress with a bow at the back and wearing his new pumps. He is a vision. Shortly into the evening however, Mark hears some distressing news, snaps a heel on his shoe, takes it off and flees home. Left with a shoe, Reg is set to look for his “Cinderella”.

When Mark’s lodger commits suicide with Mark’s help, everything comes to a head with Mark dealing with the usual Police Inspector, and two competitive tabloid journalists. But the delicious ending will not be quite what you expect.

I owe Stephanie a big thank you for the tip on this book. She tells me that Simon Shaw has also written a series about an actor, Philip Fletcher, who murders his competition in the first book. Fletcher’s primary motivation is self-interest, and he uses his acting and makeup skills extensively to facilitate his plots. Stephanie tells me that the latest in the series, The Company of Knaves, involves Fletcher going undercover as a drag artiste, Marlene von Whiplash. I’ll report on this when I can obtain a copy.

The next book is the latest release by David Baldacci, the author of Absolute Power, the book behind the movie starring Clint Eastwood. The Winner has a fascinating concept: what if the national lottery could be fixed? The monomaniacal brain behind that idea is Jackson, a financial genius who conceives the idea, then implements it using 12 patsys; one a month for a year. He greatly facilitates his scheme with his hobby; disguise. He loves disguising himself as other people. And I do mean other people. He is a skilled mimic and makeup artist. He uses that ability to perform flawless impersonations of real people he’s studied.

The personality type Jackson seeks for his lottery winners is that of a down-on-their luck person who has a human interest story which will play well in the media. They must also be willing to submit to Jackson’s plans for them. That profile seems to fit LuAnn Tyler, a beautiful trailer-trash waitress with a no-good drug-dealing husband and an infant daughter. When Jackson approaches her with his plan, she has enough integrity to be cautious at first. However when she arrives home and discovers her husband dead from a drug deal gone bad, and she has to kill a hit man to escape, she panics and agrees to Jackson’s plan.

The inevitable occurs and LuAnn wins the lottery. But by now the law is on her trail thinking she killed her husband. Jackson helps her to escape in a unique way which involves him dressing as a woman. This one passage is a great transgender read, and involves some good disguise discussion. Jackson is of course, a very passable woman and seems to enjoy the disguise. Unfortunately, though there is more crossdressing, it is not described in as much detail and is somewhat limited. But the book itself is quite enjoyable on its own.

One interesting aspect is that the book seems to have “movie” stamped all over it. It would be interesting to see one of our young chameleon-like actors take on the Jackson role.

Bibliography

Baldacci, David, “The Winner”, Warner Books, December 1997, ISBN: 0-446-52259-7

Shaw, Simon, “The Company of Knaves”, Thomas Dunne/St. Martin’s Press , January 1998, ISBN: 0312180691

Shaw, Simon, “Killer Cinderella”, Doubleday, 1992, ISBN: 0-385-41891-4

Tags: book review, crossdressing, featured

Category: Product Review, Transgender Fun & Entertainment