Set in the frantic pace of the hip, edgy contemporary world, the characters that fill Lynne Barrett’s second collection of stories are on the go. These are stories of savvy, sharp women―women who know the score―women who may be bitter, but who are resigned to the choices they’re about to make. These are women―and men―who are all making good time, because the strongest thing going for them is an unrelenting belief in themselves. A debut collection of eight stories from Gulf Stream magazine editor Barrett. Despite the somewhat ponderous title, the pieces here are fairly broad-ranging and can be considered ``women's fiction'' only consequentiallythrough the gender of the protagonists rather than through any apparent intent of the author. The narrator of ``To Go,'' for example, is a traveling saleslady in Florida whose boss and (married) lover has the bad fortune to drop dead in the car while shes in a roadside restaurant, leaving her to deal with the formalities of his disposal. Show business gets a certain amount of attention: ``Hush Money'' describes a Hollywood gardener's encounter with the woman who sold Marilyn Monroe her voice (literally), while ``Meet the Impersonators!'' portrays the chaotic personal lives of the members of a rock band, told from the somewhat exasperated perspective of the groups accountant. ``Macy Is the Other Woman'' is narrated by Macy herself, who is indeed the other woman: shes been carrying on a an affair with Jay for some time while still maintaining friendly relations with Jay's wife Emily. Understated but not cynical (``He said we'd be passionate, then we'd get tired of that, and then we'd be friends. No love. He promised me we wouldn't have that pain''), its the most moving piece in the collection. The final story, ``Beauty,'' concerns a divorced woman who becomes accidentally pregnant, then moves home to stay with her parents and sort things out; in the end, she takes advantage of the situation to go off on her own and start a new life. Barrett could profit from tighter construction and a sharper focus, but, still, she succeeds in creating an emotionally intriguing world filled with credible and vivid people. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Each story is a little masterpiece of wit, realism and invention, peopled with characters who seem drawn from contemporary life--life as it is lived in strip malls, along interstates, in nightclubs, roadside attractions.... If one of these stories stands above the rest, it would have to be "The Former Star Carlson," about a young woman who marries a foreign student in her apartment house so he can obtain a green card. With almost incredible economy, Barrett sketches in a large cast of characters--friends, immigration lawyers, INS inspectors--along with significant emotional reversals to tell a story that is as sweet and uplifting as it is utterly realistic and believable. The pleasure offered by these stories is genuine and immense; by the end, the primary criticism most readers will have is that The Secret Names of Women contains only eight stories instead of 16 or 24. -- Sun-Sentinel, Chauncey Mabe, July 11, 1999 If you're a fan of Jayne Anne Phillips, Alice Munro, Lorrie Moore, and all those other great gal writers who write kick-ass short stories, you will definitely enjoy the second collection from Lynne Barrett. These eight tales are united by mostly female protagonists who are picking and choosing between love and lust. -- San Francisco Bay Guardian, Jennifer Joseph, May 26, 1999 Only one of the eight stories in this terrific collection, the Edgar-winning "Elvis Lives"...qualifies as crime fiction, but Barrett shows her attachment to the genre by no less than three Erle Stanley Gardner/Perry Mason references. Of the non-criminous tales, "Hush Money" is a great speculation about the source of one of Marilyn Monroe's key attributes, while "Meet the Impersonators" is a darkly funny and affecting story about a small-time 1986 rock band. -- Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, John L. Breen, September/October 1999 “Who told Lynne Barrett everybody’s secrets? If I were a man and wanted to understand women better, I’d hike myself to a bookstore today. If you’re a woman, buy this book for what you’ll learn about yourself in every paragraph. Not to mention what you’ll learn about the opposite sex. Barrett has the same superb bead on us both. I devoured these stories.” (Candace Flynt) “Lynne Barrett’s stories are literary gems—wise, funny, surprising, enchanting. They manage to be not only about their quirky, marvelous characters, but about America, not in a sociological sense, but in the deeper meanings revealed by art.” (Dan Wakefield, author of Going All the Way) LYNNE BARRETT’s stories have appeared in Mondo Barbie, Having a Wonderful Time, Simply the Best Mysteries, Marilyn: Shades of Blonde and many other anthologies, as well as in Redbook, Other Voices, Tampa Review, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazin