Alice Fantastic

An "entertaining" novel about a family of three women "navigating relationships, a half-dozen lovers and innumerable dogs" ( Publishers Weekly).   Alice Hunter is a thirty-six-year-old professional gambler living in Queens, New York. She is modestly successful as a horseplayer and enjoys her work. Though she is avidly pursued by her lover, Clayton, whom she refers to as The Big Oaf, Alice's real closest companion is a small spotted dog, and Alice likes it that way.   When Clayton's overzealousness leads Alice to ask one of her racetrack cronies to intimidate him into leaving her, a few things go wrong—and Alice turns to her half-sister Eloise, a toy maker whose own lover has just been killed in a freak accident. Despite their gruffness with each other, there is fierce love among Alice, Eloise, and their unconventional mother, Kimberly—but it will take the accidental discovery of an awful secret to truly bring three eccentric women, seventeen dogs, and assorted lovers together.   "The storytelling has vitality and a spirit of rebellion." — The New York Times   "There is about Maggie Estep's work a directness, a clear determination—a drive to cut through, to break through, to claw through—that is impressive." —A. M. Homes, author of  May We Be Forgiven