Play Dirty: A Novel

This is a review so there are *spoilers*.

Another good book by Sandra Brown, a strong 4.5 stars. After spending 5 years in jail, former football player Griff Burkett was released from prison. He had been convicted of throwing a championship game to pay back a big gambling debt. He had no friends, family, or job opportunities. He was hated by everyone. He unexpectedly receives a call from Foster Speakman, a multi-millionaire offering him a job. You know the old saying "if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is", and it was.

From there starts a fast past story which involves a 5 year murder, a death, and a dirty cop. All this makes a very good action thriller. Foster Speakman is found dead and Detective Rodarte is blaming Griff and is doing everything, legal or not, to chase him down. A fast pace hide and seek ensues with only Mrs. Speakman believing Griff. I'll not go into the job Mr. Speakman hired Griff to do, but you will find it very unusual and exciting. At least, I did.

Griff is a very defined flawed hero. All the characters were necessary for the story and the bad guy was a scary vicious bully. The story flowed fast without any silly secondary story to distract the reader. The action scenes made me feel like I was right there looking over my shoulder. Good job Ms. Brown. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes mystery/thrillers.

Good reading to all,
retired to read

PLAY DIRTY is one of Sandra Brown’s early efforts at combining mystery hunting with a touch of romance. I believe she failed in both efforts. The story starts off with Griff Burkett, former Dallas Cowboy star football hero now in disrepute for cheating and throwing a game, being sent to prison at Big Spring, Texas, for five years on racketeering charges. Upon release Burkett has no job, no money and no friends. After a time he receives a job offer that can only be construed as weird. However, it pays extremely well so he accepts. His new boss is Foster Sparkman, a paraplegic, and his beautiful wife, Laura, who own Sun South Airlines. Although, Burkett has paid his debt to society, he is harassed daily by former fans and the general public. One person in particular, Stanly Rodarte, torments him at every turn. The plot is interesting but I feel Brown never comes close to developing her characters. What becomes apparent early on is that none of them are very well liked. Toward the end of the story Brown attempts to make up for this but it is too late. I give Play Dirty a 3-star rating.

Sandra Brown books have about 3 - 4 different plots. The one in this book is the one most often used, approximately 90% of the time: Gruff, rude, no ethics good guy somehow wins over tough, self-made heroine, who is in trouble. Implies the woman doesn't let anyone push her around but this could not be farther from the truth. Good guy is unlikable but gets the woman to see he is only misunderstood and they become a couple. In real life this set up leads to "good guy" mentally/physically abusing heroine/woman and is what young girls are warned to avoid. Good job glamorizing it! Would be great if for once woman realizes she is being used for selfish reasons, leaves and ends up happy in a healthy relationship with someone else (I guess this is not glamorous enough)! Even when "mr. misunderstood" needs help he does not have any problem being rude and arrogant. He doesn't want to be judged but makes fun of others and judges everyone else; but still within 2 days bimbo falls in love with misunderstood and sees the goodness there?! The situation that brings these two together starts off interestingly enough but then spirals into ridiculous and unbelievable actions from several characters in the book. Seems more like a lovesick 14 year old wrote this book rather than an adult woman, however, this may be kind of harsh toward the 14 year old! If you are paying any kind of attention you will know who the real villain by no more than a third of the way into the book, at most. Once you know this it is easy to know what is going to happen and twists are taken away. A completely mindless read.

I just realized that I meant to write this review for a different Sandra Brown book, "Sting", however, doesn't really matter, the basic plot is almost exactly the same and this review also pertains to this book as well!

A much better Sandra Brown book that does not follow the same old plot line is Envy. Wish she'd write more of these.

I now question why I have to finish every book I begin. True, I read very quickly, but still, this one left a bad taste. These are not nice people, and the situation is so contrived and outlandish, it leaves one feeling manipulated. I already wasted my time, but you don't have to.

THANK YOU Sandra for another great book. Lots of twist and turns and the tender sexual tention of the main characters terrific.

I love most books written by Sandra Brown. This was a good story. No, I didn't love the characters initially. They were all flawed. Some more than others but it made for an interesting story. Some scenes were so visually clear that days later I mentally flash on them. I read this in one day. Didn't skim or skip ahead. That's the mark of a good story for me.

This is one of the best of Sandra Brown's books in my estimation. I zipped through it really fast because it was so good.
Sandra never disappoints me. She has an exceptionally good vocabulary, the pacing is good, and her plots are sensational.
She's my heroine writer!

Sandra Brown almost always tells a page-turning story, full of interesting characters, plot twists, and surprises, and this book is no exception.

Several people have commented that they don't like the main characters, Griff Burkett and Laura Speakman. Excuse me, but since when is "liking" a character a measure of how good a book is, or isn't? In any case, the characters-- likeable or not-- are well-drawn and their defects (which both have) are understandable. These aren't cardboard cut-outs who are Simon-pure "good" or totally (and inexplicably) "evil." If you want *that* sort of garbage, read fantasy novels like Tolkein's, where the "good" characters are "good" because "it's the right thing to do" and the evil characters (like Sauron) are evil because... uh, well, just because they're, you know, EVIL.

The main characters in the book are human-- they have their flaws, and they have their good points-- just as people in real life do. That's a problem? They are:

Griff Burkett. Former NFL football star, Griff has just spent five years in federal prison for "racketeering"-- in his case, "throwing" a major football game to erase a gambling debt. Burkett has spent much of his life being a self-centered, self-absorbed jerk, with little in the way of social skills or empathy for others-- a mentality that is totally understandable, given his ugly, dysfunctional childhood. Those who don't find him "believable" should spend some time studying Psychology 101.

Laura Speakman. Laura has her own "baggage," a large part of which she acquired when her mother, hopelessly depressed over the death of Laura's father, chose to sink deeper and deeper into depression and ultimately kill herself. Laura also feels a vast burden of obligation toward her husband, Fosters Speakman. First, because he recognized her intelligence and business acumen, and promoted her to a position she could-- and, if she'd been a man, would-- have been given years earlier. Second, because, after his first wife, Elaine, died of leukemia, he courted Laura and married her, thus giving her an enormous "promotion," both in his own life and in the company. And third, she bears an enormous burden of guilt, because SHE was driving the car when she and Foster were involved in the horrible traffic accident that rendered him a paraplegic. The accident wasn't her fault, but yet, she can't help but wonder *what might have been.* What if Foster had been driving on that fateful night? What if she hadn't insisted on driving because he'd had more drinks than she'd had? What if...? What if?

And then there's Foster Speakman, the multi-millionaire son of Old Texas Money. He's a brilliant businessman who buys up a failing airline-- SunSouth-- and turns it around. But he's also a twisted victim of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) whose disease is growing worst and who secretly-- even to himself-- blames his wife Laura for turning him into a half-man paraplegic. If SHE hadn't insisted on driving that night... if SHE hadn't driven through that intersection with the green light, then they would not have been broad-sided by that idiot truck-driver who ran a red light... and HE would not have ended up being a cripple in a wheelchair.

Sorry, Sandra Brown detractors, but these are just the kinds of irrational attitudes and beliefs that motivate people to do what they do in real life. Can you truthfully say that your OWN life makes perfect sense? Can you truthfully say that every decision you've ever made in your life was motivated by cold logic and reason, and not by old fears, old resentments, old sorrows, old hatreds, old disappointments, from YOUR own life? Eh? Eh?

I have two main criticisms of Brown, and neither of them has to do with her creation of characters I didn't "like."

The first criticism is of her sex scenes. I think they are unnecessarily graphic-- to the point that they cease being "romantic" and become outright pornography. Yes, they're well-written porn-- but they're still porn.

The second is of her use of terms that she, as a professional writer, should know better than to use. The chief of these is "normalcy." That non-word sets my teeth on edge whenever I encounter it. The noun form of an adjective ending in "al" is "ity," NOT "cy." You don't say "formalcy." You don't say "bestialcy." You don't say "formalcy."

And you don't say "normalcy"-- not unless you are a very lazy writer who never learned what the correct noun form of "the state of being normal" is. That noun is NORMALITY-- not "normalcy."

That bastard word came from Warren G. Harding, who was hardly a poster boy for literacy. In a speech that received far more attention than it deserved, he said, "America's present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy..."

And that ridiculous, bastard word has been with us ever since. And even professional writers who really SHOULD know better-- such as Sandra Brown and Stephen King-- have used it.

All that aside, Sandra Brown knows the basic thing that distinguishes "good writers" from "wannabe's"-- she knows How to Tell a Story.

As Stephen King pointed out in his book, "On Writing," Story is everything. If you are not giving Good Story-- Story that people want to read, Story that keeps people turning the pages-- then you are not doing your job.

One thing I can say about Sandra Brown is that she almost always "gives good story."

And that is the highest accolade any writer can hope to receive. "Good Story" is everything... and regardless of whatever else she does, Sandra Brown delivers "good story" almost every time... including this one.

This book was very good until the end. I think it was a bit flaky at the end with everything ending away from the action.

Always enjoy a Sandra Brown book...they keep me hooked until
I finish the story and goodness always prevails.