Alibi by Teri Woods
Reviewed by A. Jarrell Hayes
Desperate times call for desperate measures. The characters in Teri Woods’ novel Alibi are desperately trying to survive in the tough streets of 1980s Philadelphia.
The book starts with two young men desperate to make it in the drug game decide to rob a stash from Simon Shuller, the city’s biggest drug lord. The robbery is spontaneous and unplanned, and they run into Nard, who is desperate to keep his good name with the boss. This results in a shootout, where Nard is the only survivor. As he flees the scene, he is spotted by a neighborhood child and his mother. Now Nard is desperate for an alibi.
That’s where Daisy comes into play. She’s a stripper that does more than tease her customers. She’s also broke and takes care of her ailing mother. She’s desperate for some cash. When Sticks, Nard’s running buddy and Daisy’s part-time lover, approaches her with a wad of cash to provide Nard with an alibi, she accepts. It sounds like a good deal to her; she thinks all she has to do is talk to an investigator and that’s it. Besides, she’s desperate for the extra money.
Unfortunately, the plan doesn’t go through as Sticks predicted. There are some loose ends that need to be tied up – like the two witnesses to the shooting. Instead of talking it over with Simon Shuller, the main boss, Nard takes matters into his own desperate hands, making more of a mess for himself and his buddy Sticks. When holes begin to appear in Daisy’s alibi, Sticks adds to the body count in a desperate attempt to keep Nard from getting a heavy prison sentence.
Stick’s efforts are in vain, because Daisy wises up and bolts out of state, to live with relatives in the south. Daisy is a naive woman desperate for love. When her new boyfriend, who planned to marry her and buy her a house, disappears on her, and the authorities begin to pressure her, Daisy wants to leave it all behind and escape. Once she is on the run, Sticks and government agents follow her, both desperately trying to drag her back to Philly.
The book is non-stop action; full of plot changes and shootouts, as fans of Teri Woods’ writings have come to expect. The book has a frenetic pace; everything happens quickly and time gets compressed. To keep the action moving, there isn’t many parts for introversion by the characters. Especially for Daisy, who deals with a personal loss and being raped, but doesn’t seem effected by the events as one would imagine. After each traumatic event, Daisy continues with life as if nothing out of the ordinary happened. It isn’t that she’s a character with a particularly strong will.
Woods’ exchange of emotion for continued action is probably the book’s most glaring flaw. But Woods does a great job of adding short little quips of thought from inside characters’ minds – oftentimes the thoughts are humorous. If Woods’ goal with Alibi is to entertain and increase the heart rate of her readers as they read, then she hit the proverbial nail on the head.
Wrote a book? Click here for book review submission guidelines.The book starts with two young men desperate to make it in the drug game decide to rob a stash from Simon Shuller, the city’s biggest drug lord. The robbery is spontaneous and unplanned, and they run into Nard, who is desperate to keep his good name with the boss. This results in a shootout, where Nard is the only survivor. As he flees the scene, he is spotted by a neighborhood child and his mother. Now Nard is desperate for an alibi.
That’s where Daisy comes into play. She’s a stripper that does more than tease her customers. She’s also broke and takes care of her ailing mother. She’s desperate for some cash. When Sticks, Nard’s running buddy and Daisy’s part-time lover, approaches her with a wad of cash to provide Nard with an alibi, she accepts. It sounds like a good deal to her; she thinks all she has to do is talk to an investigator and that’s it. Besides, she’s desperate for the extra money.
Unfortunately, the plan doesn’t go through as Sticks predicted. There are some loose ends that need to be tied up – like the two witnesses to the shooting. Instead of talking it over with Simon Shuller, the main boss, Nard takes matters into his own desperate hands, making more of a mess for himself and his buddy Sticks. When holes begin to appear in Daisy’s alibi, Sticks adds to the body count in a desperate attempt to keep Nard from getting a heavy prison sentence.
Stick’s efforts are in vain, because Daisy wises up and bolts out of state, to live with relatives in the south. Daisy is a naive woman desperate for love. When her new boyfriend, who planned to marry her and buy her a house, disappears on her, and the authorities begin to pressure her, Daisy wants to leave it all behind and escape. Once she is on the run, Sticks and government agents follow her, both desperately trying to drag her back to Philly.
The book is non-stop action; full of plot changes and shootouts, as fans of Teri Woods’ writings have come to expect. The book has a frenetic pace; everything happens quickly and time gets compressed. To keep the action moving, there isn’t many parts for introversion by the characters. Especially for Daisy, who deals with a personal loss and being raped, but doesn’t seem effected by the events as one would imagine. After each traumatic event, Daisy continues with life as if nothing out of the ordinary happened. It isn’t that she’s a character with a particularly strong will.
Woods’ exchange of emotion for continued action is probably the book’s most glaring flaw. But Woods does a great job of adding short little quips of thought from inside characters’ minds – oftentimes the thoughts are humorous. If Woods’ goal with Alibi is to entertain and increase the heart rate of her readers as they read, then she hit the proverbial nail on the head.
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