Description
Price: $11.95
(as of Dec 16, 2024 15:37:07 UTC – Details)
This autobiographical novel is a psychological thriller which chronicles the author’s disastrous relationship with a woman, Keri, who unbeknownst to him has a long criminal history. They meet though an on-line dating site in the wake of his wife’s death from ovarian cancer. Keri was adopted as a baby by a military family who had another child “naturally” only about a year after she was brought home. From an early age, Keri exhibits sociopathic behaviors. She is sexually promiscuous even before reaching puberty. She discovers she can trade sex for money from the age of fifteen. Consistent with her sociopathic personality, she becomes quite sadistic towards her brother whom her parents can’t help but show a preference for. Keri meets Colin on St. Patrick’s Day in an Irish pub in Georgetown. In short order, they’re living together and soon get married. His work takes him away from home to overseas military installations frequently. At home alone, Keri becomes bored and begins to frequent singles bars to pick up guys. One man she meets not only shares sex with her, but also prescription pain medicine. Keri loves the high and becomes addicted. To support her habit, Keri begins to steal money and merchandise from a women’s clothing boutique where she has become the manager in the Georgetown neighborhood close to where she and Colin live. Keri’s theft and embezzlement are discovered and she spends time in prison on a felony conviction. When she is released from prison, Colin is mortified that his wife isn’t welcome in the presence of their friends and insists that they have to move somewhere far away in order to start over with new friends and a new situation. Reluctantly, Keri agrees to relocate to New Mexico.Even before arriving in New Mexico, Keri becomes pregnant with their first child and within two years of settling in Los Gatos, she is pregnant with the couple’s second child. After their second child begins grade school, Keri begins to get bored during the day again. She discovers that most of her neighboring moms are bored, as well, and use some form of escape to relieve it. A few are alcoholics. A few are addicted to gambling. One can’t leave the couch in front of the television. And, bingo! One likes prescription pain medicines. Keri’s abuse of prescription drugs becomes so out of control that it rapidly has disastrous financial implications. She and Colin have to declare bankruptcy. Their house is repossessed. Colin divorces her, gets sole custody of the children, and moves back East. Keri eventually finds a job as the office manager of a local church. Short counting the Sunday collections baskets to pocket some cash becomes more than she can resist. She soon finds that her crimes are discovered and she is convicted yet again of felonious behavior and sentenced to the State prison. Bill’s story begins when he is in his mid-thirties. He has just divorced the mother of his daughter and is grudgingly persuaded to take a share in the Hamptons as a means to meet a potential spouse. He has been single for four or five years and as he approaches forty, he is despairing that he will meet anyone. Then, serendipitously, he meets Tracy at a dance club one night and so begins their journey. After several years of a storybook romance and marriage, Tracy is diagnosed with ovarian cancer. While she battles it valiantly, she eventually succumbs to the disease. After their first date, Bill is smitten with her. Keri plays hard-to-get, but eventually, she confesses that she needs a job. He gives her a job and despite knowing he should be cautious about dating an employee, Bill falls in love with Keri and eventually marries her. Once married, Keri’s antisocial behavior toward Bill escalates dramatically. Bill files for divorce and only then discovers evidence that Keri has been embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from him and his stores. Bill’s story could happen to anyone.
ASIN : B09CRM4HZM
Publisher : Independently published (August 18, 2021)
Language : English
Paperback : 292 pages
ISBN-13 : 979-8504500379
Item Weight : 13.9 ounces
Dimensions : 6 x 0.66 x 9 inches
Patrick Yuen –
Shameless & Narcos rolled together!
Once you start reading this thriller, you cannot put it down to find out the next sleazy scheme being cooked up by the Grifter. I finished the novel in 2 days and my lady friend finished in in one day. We also had the opportunity to do a deep dive with the Author with a Zoom call. I have known the Author for over 40 years and he is one of most generous and considerate friend that I know. I hope this low life who shamelessly exploited the vulnerabilities of the Author will revisit the cell block soon. There are also elements of dark humor which some readers will enjoy.
Kindle Customerbill limbrecht –
Different
Enjoyed reading…author thinks with his small head and screws with his big head…he’s stupid…terrible ending…not in prison…what a joke…that’s it is
William G. Salter –
A psychological tour-de-force
The Girl With The Green Lipstick is many things. As a novel, it is a potboiler filled with colorful characters involved in competing narratives of the search for love on the one hand, and on the other, the career of a gifted grifter. In pure plot terms, when these two pursuits and the people who embody them collide, it screams âyouâre-not-going-to-believe-this,â but in fact it is a true story. Truth is stranger than fiction, but then, so are our psyches.That latter consideration is what makes this such a compelling story. What is it about us that seeks to be loved, to be understood, to be valued? Why is that yearning so strong in some of us that we will continue to seek it when any rational analysis would tell us that what weâre experiencing is abuse: physical, psychological, emotional, and with real world effects like being taken for our fortunes? What is it about the nature of sex, whether engaged in or denied, that it can become the psychological currency of the realm, when sex itself is not even what the heart seeks? And how do those injured in these cataclysms ever recover?This story speaks of a successful, generous, and affectionate man who has found true and meaningful love with his wife. Hidden beneath, but exposed as the story progresses, is how long his journey was in finding that relationship, the many painful chapters in his youth and early adult life which preceded it, and the catastrophic impact of his loss when she dies, in his arms, after a long battle with cancer. His attempts to heal lead him to The Girl With The Green Lipstick, who cruelly toys with him and has her own tortured and torturing history behind her. Youâll have to read it to see how it plays out, but I can say with certainty that it would make a very compelling movie.In short, as fiction, or even a true-to-life novel, itâs a great story. But as a psychological map of the main characters, its truly fascinating, and a tour-de-force of self-awareness by its author, who makes no attempt to shield his vulnerabilities.
Do not do the up sneak –
Desperately in need of an editor
I was curious, so I decided to read through the sample. If, as another review intimates, the author is well-off, it’s a shame he was too tight-fisted to hire a decent editor. I made note of the numerous issues with punctuation, verb tenses, disjointed narrative, and a lurid and unsettling focus on underage sex in the first chapter, but where I had to give up was the description of Keri’s temper tantrum when her brother Robert was born.If the author had hired a competent editor, that person might have pointed out that, a few pages up, the narrative claimed that Keri was adopted as a newborn, and that her mother became pregnant “naturally” two months later. Thus, Keri couldn’t have been older than 11-12 months when she supposedly had the conversation with her parents about wanting her brother to be sent back.In a regular fiction novel, this would be a minor irritant but fairly easily overlooked. However, remember that this is touted as an autobiographical novel. It seems clear that Keri is destined to be the Evil One and, presumably, the author is the saintly soul who suffers nobly as his pure spirit and good nature are wholly taken advantage of by Keri’s malign and predatory nature (insert eyeroll here). Such a jarring exaggeration/misrepresentation of Keri’s selfish and amoral nature — in this supposedly true-story account — casts doubt on everything the author might have to say, as well as magnifying the rest of the editorial oversights and making them less easy to disregard.I’m sure the author feels he’s the first and only person to be taken advantage of or treated badly in a relationship, but his apparent inability to draw a consistent narrative makes me wonder about what the REAL story might be.
Amazon Customer –
Good read!
Fascinating storyline. Must read!
Dog Momma –
Terrible book. Poorly written with unlikable characters.
I am sad to state that I wasted several hours of my time attempting to read this book. I quit halfway though as I simply could not tolerate reading it further. The author states that this is something that could happen to anyone…I disagree. All the red flags of erratic behavior and fraud, he simply choose to ignore. None of the characters had any redeeming qualities. Save yourself time and money (if paying for this book) and choose something else. It has been a very long time that I have disliked a book so strongly that I decided to write a review. Bill (character and author) deserved everything that he got since he was not able to think above his waist.
Maureen Pisani –
The story exposes the good, the bad, the ugly AND how self-love NEEDS to triumph!
Whoa! This book takes the reader on a roller coaster of experiences. Although a work of fiction, it shares deep intensities of raw emotion that pull the readers into the story completely. We experience incredible love, which is followed by gut wrenching grief, which is then followed by a series of shocking events that exhibit from one hand – the ruthlessness & unrelenting deviousness of a narcissistic sociopath, and on the other hand – the extent of pain a loving partner goes through. This book exposes how intentional the narcissistic sociopathâs behavior truly is. It inadvertently offers the answer to all of us who have dealt with such monsters, that prioritizing ourselves, cutting cords, and walking away is truly the right and ONLY thing to do. The events that occur, whether labeled fiction or wishful reckoning, have us cheering the main character on, hoping that justice gets handed down.