Book excerpt: In total darkness, a burglar breaks into Ata's apartment. She wakes and claims to have a gun. The burglar turns on a light revealing a luxury apartment totally denuded of furniture. Ata has been cleaned out by her lawyer husband. In revenge for his philandering, she slept with his best friend and he took all of the furniture in his rage. The burglar actually a female grifter and Ata join forces to take the husband for everything. The grifter and her male partner have lost their "shimmy" the woman who pretends to the mark to have been victimized and it is clear that Ata would make an excellent replacement. She eventually agrees and embarks on a life of crime. Fans of the author's Talking With, Vital Signs, Cementville, and What Mama Don't know will delight in the quirky humor of this cross between Thelma and Louise and The Grifters.