How to Rob a Bank in Drag

By: Dawn Lawson

Narrated by: Lynne Perry

Mistress of disguise, guilty in bank heists...

It just keeps getting weirder. In a true story, the author writes of a brutal childhood interrupted by occasional spurts of Disneyland and ponies. After a fumbled ax attack by her mother, she takes to the streets at 14 years old.

She is a prey looking for a predator. Predators she finds, as well as the unlikeliest of heroes. There is no “road less traveled”. There is no road. She makes her way through back alleys that are dark and mesmerizing. Occasionally brutal, occasionally flat out funny.

Finally old enough to legally exist, she builds a resume. Waitress. Camel handler. Heroin addict. Bank robber. Federal Penitentiary inmate. Mannequin refinisher. Waitress again. In the end, a dogaholic and digital artist with a terminal illness. Most of her partners have died. Doctors say she will join them. Soon. Maybe on the way home from the doctor’s office.

She rids her life of everything not precious and ends up surrounded by abandoned old dogs, a cat with PTSD, a very few rock-solid friendships, and some odd decorating ideas. It turns out that the past was necessary to forge something worthy of living for. Written with wry humor, tragedy turns out to be something different than tragic.

Reviewed by Lois Henderson for Readers’ Favorite Review Rating: 5 stars

"The tale of one woman’s progression from being a 14-year-old runaway from an emotionally battered childhood to where, at the age of 53, a recovering drug addict and alcoholic, more prone than not to land up in the wrong relationship at the wrong time and in the wrong place, Lawson triumphs, at least on the personal front, despite it all. Her love for animals and her appreciation for the basic good in humankind is a tribute to the generosity of her spirit throughout.

The audiobook warmed me to the soul and had me so enthralled that the moment I had finished listening to the entire book, I listened to it again. An audiobook not to be missed."

©2019 Dawn Lawson (P)2020 Dawn Lawson

Critic reviews

"How to Rob a Bank in Drag: A True Story of ODD LGBT Issues by Dawn Lawson is the tale of one woman’s progression from being a 14-year-old runaway from an emotionally battered childhood to where, at the age of 53, as a recovering drug addict and alcoholic, she is able to reflect on and recount the saga of her journey through life. With a father who was, thankfully, consistently supportive of her, and with the growing realization of her own nature as a gay young woman with an addictive personality, who was more prone than not to land up in the wrong relationship at the wrong time and in the wrong place, Lawson triumphs, at least on the personal front, despite it all. Her love for animals and her appreciation for the basic good in humankind is a tribute to the generosity of her spirit throughout.

As a dog lover myself, I especially appreciated Dawn Lawson’s developing awareness of the importance of those of the canine breed expressed in How to Rob a Bank in Drag—as she states, the multifarious mutts rescued her more than she rescued them. Her time spent in prison for bank robbery to feed her drug habit was also of much interest to me, as I have a close friend who went the same route after one too many DUIs. Her descriptions of the highs and lows of her involvement with Alcoholics Anonymous, ranging from close companionship and affection for her fellow attendees to her debunking of the so-called “professional expertise” of an out-and-out fraudulent psychologist, who was more on a personal power trip than a worthy facilitator of healing, were also close to my heart, as they should be to anyone who has befriended those with a somewhat risqué background.

The audiobook of Dawn Lawson’s How to Rob a Bank in Drag, voiced by Lynne Perry, warmed me to the soul and had me so enthralled that the moment I had finished listening to the entire book, I listened to it again (which, I’m sure, can’t be said for many audiobooks)! The whole journey of a fellow suffering spirit is totally riveting, and Perry does it full justice, with her full-scaled empathy with the author’s travails and traumas. I also enjoyed the American Indian chanting between chapters, as it lent a sonorous quality to the text. In short, an audiobook not to be missed." (Lois Henderson, Readers’ Favorite)

Fabulously honest this book gets an a plus

This book grabs you instant. I could hardly put it o. Cudos for the author