Fred Dillen Novel Launch: Beauty

Publishers Weekly   —    a feel-good story with a dash of romance

      Kirkus Review   —               After a career closing factories, a woman reclaims her blue-collar roots, revives a plant and saves a community.

      Booklist:   —                         The fast-moving, cutthroat world of corporate acquisitions and mergers proves a fascinating milieu for the story of one woman. Carol McLean, 56, is the “undertaker” who delivers the news that a company is dead for New York firm Baxter Blume, and in that role, she has become known as “the Beast.” After just one more burial – of Elizabeth’s Fish in coastal Massachusetts – she’s been promised her own company. But Baxter Blume reneges and fires her instead, and Carol – impressed by the women who work the line at the fish factory – acts to make Elizabeth’s Fish her own to run. With her blue-collar background, Carol relates to the people of Elizabeth Island, particularly to fisherman Ezekiel “Easy” Parsons, who tags her with the nickname “Beauty.” Dealing with a proposed zoning change is easy, but then comes the potentially fatal injunction limiting the local fishing that’s essential to Carol’s plan. Dillen’s third novel (after Hero, 1994, and Fool, 1999) is an absorbing story of one smart, hardworking woman handling the “fat boys” of corporate leadership on their own turf, with masterfully developed characters and, as a bonus, a poignant romance.