Esther Diamond--a Real Reading Treasure

In 2006, I read a fantastic book called Disappearing Nightly by Laura Resnick.  It was wonderfully hilarious and I was thrilled to note that there was a sequel due out shortly.  I believe how I found out was at the end of the book, it said something along the lines of "Coming soon: Doppelgangsters".  It probably said it more eloquently than that, but you get the point.  I was excited, like I always am about upcoming books in series I enjoy and searched out an ISBN for it so I could put it on my Paperbackswap.com wishlist, where I would keep track off all upcoming books I wanted, whether I planned to get them through there or not.


Years went by.  Every now and then, I'd search other sources, trying to find out what happened to this mysterious book that I wanted to read so badly but didn't seem to exist yet.  Then, a few months ago, a beautiful thing happened!  I found it!  Either I got the title wrong, or it changed in the years of my quest, but the long awaited Doppelgangster, book 2 of the Esther Diamond series, finally came out last year!  I was so happy I literally cried at finding it.  And when I actually got a copy of it in my hands, I knew it was worth the wait!  Seriously, this is one of the funniest books I've ever read.  I couldn't read it in the same room as the kids were sleeping in, because I kept waking them up with my laughing.


And I was absolutely elated that there was already a third Esther Diamond book out, Unsympathetic Magic.  Also fricking hilarious! 


Now, I am suffering again.  It seems that the next installment in this amazing series, Vamparazzi, isn't due out until this Ocober 4, 2011 (but is now available for preorder on Amazon!)!  *sigh*  Well, this publisher seems a lot more reliable than Luna (disclaimer:  I don't know what the issue was with this series that caused a long delay and switched publisher, but Luna has discontinued a number of series and left readers in a lurch by their own admission...some nonsense about being a business and having to turn a profit...so I'm more inclined to automatically blame them.  I lost my trust in them long before Doppelgangster hit the shelves for other series they abandoned!), so I'm not too terrified of another ridiculously long delay, but, I'll admit it does make me nervous...even though I'm sure this book would be worth the wait as well!

Disappearing Nightly: I'm not a heroine -- I just play one. Also psychotics, vamps, orphans, hookers, housewives and -- on one memorable occasion -- a singing rutabaga. It was never my ambition to utilize my extensive dramatic training by playing a musical vegetable.

However, as my agent is fond of pointing out, there are more actors in New York than there are people in most other cities. Translation: Beggars can't be choosers.

This explains how I wound up painting my body green and prancing around stage half-naked the night Golly Gee, the female lead in the off-broadway show "Sorcerer!" disappeared into thin air. Literally.


Now other performers are also vanishing, and a mysterious stranger is warning me: There is evil among us. But the producers want me to take over Golly's part.

Looks like I'm going to need a little magical help if I want to keep my starring role . . .

(Note: this book looks like it might be a little hard to find, but events in it are referenced quite a bit in the other books, so it is definitely worth a read for that as well as being funny on its own.  Worth hunting down a copy!)

Doppelgangster: "In Laura Resnick's Doppelgangster, the New York actress is 'resting' between roles by working as a singing waitress at a Manhattan mob restaurant because wiseguys tip well. Then duplicated gangsters appear, bullets start flying, and it's up to Esther and her friend Max the Magician to fight Evil by stopping the gang war before it starts killing the wrong people. And if she has time, maybe Esther can actually keep a hot date with her hunky detective friend Lopez, who doesn't believe in magic. Yet. Unplug the phone and settle down for a fast and funny read."

Unsympathetic Magic:  Acting jobs don't grow on fire escapes, so struggling actress Esther Diamond is outraged when her guest role as a hooker on controversial TV drama The Dirty Thirty is jeopardized by zombies, angry spirits, and a voodoo curse. But will Esther's courage backfire and end up leading her to become a human sacrifice on the altar of the sinister supernatural powers that are taking over New York City?