The Hound Of The Sanibel Sunset Detective, By Ron Base

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Ron Base is a dog lover. This book is dedicated to “The Real Clinton”, his now deceased loved companion, with him again through writing about him. I like that.

This is a rip-roaring fun read. Tree Callister has decided to retire from being a private investigator. He just couldn’t convince his attorney, Edith Goldman, of that. She goaded him into that “one last job”. So, as a favor to his attorney who had come to his rescue many times throughout his PI career he reluctantly headed for Miami in his Volkswagen Beetle convertible. He was just suppose to talk to Vic Trinchera (a Canadian businessman [ha, ha]). Vic didn’t do much talking before he was fleeing for his life, but not before he had saddled Tree with the dog. A French hound with big hound dog eyes named Clinton. Tree soon finds out a lot of unsavory people want to get their hands on Clinton, but he was determined to protect this lovable hound. And so the rip-roaring fun begins! Dead bodies to the left! Dead bodies to the right! Like his wife said, “Consider this, Tree. Maybe your life is one of those pulp thrillers you used to read as a kid.” And I say this is an over the top best action packed humorous thriller I’ve ever read!

To Catch a Bad Guy, by Marie Astor

I enjoyed reading TO CATCH A BAD GUY, by Marie Astor very much. This was the perfect book for me to read while sitting on the porch with an ice tea, enjoying the last days of summer. It is an easy to read linear story centered around Janet Maple, a 29-year-old attorney. She lost her job at the District Attorney’s Office due to downsizing; or, more accurately, betrayal by her then boyfriend, Alex Kingsley, who took credit for her work in order to advance his own career, then fired her in the “downsizing” process.   Janet’s childhood friend and neighbor, Lisa Foley, gets her a job with Bostoff Securities as General Council, an in-house corporate attorney’s position. Unfortunately, Janet notices nonethical trading methods within Bostoff Securities that worry her. The best part is the revealing of how Lisa, as a friend, has somehow always caused Janet to end up on the bottom rung of the ladder, uncomfortable situations, in their relationship. Lisa is one of those self-absorbed, self-serving friends that ends up hurting instead of helping. I like that Janet always takes the high ground in their friendship. Regardless the discomfort brought on her by “the queen bee” high school friend, Janet remains a loyal friend looking out for the best interest of Lisa. Yeah! The type of protagonist that I can relate to, and be apathetic with.

Janet is so often victim to Lisa’s match making attempts. Lisa keeps trying to set Janet up with good looking rich men. In this story, these potential good husband-provider types all have questionable morals. Enters Dean Snider, aka Dennis Walker, an undercover agent working to catch the Wall Street criminals. Janet has an immediate attraction to Dean Snider when she meets him on her first day at work at Bostoff Securities, sitting at her desk in her office “fixing her computer” (bugging her computer). She throws up her defenses once she finds out he deceived her and is actually an impersonator; a spy. The romantic tension is delightful to the end where we are left hanging. Thus, I now have to read Book Two of the Janet Maple Series, because I am the cat that will die of curiosity until I know if they finally get together, or just become good friends and partners in crime, i.e., catching the bad guys. Gotta know!

The Enemy We Know, by Donna White Glaser

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Book One in the Letty Whittaker 12 Step Mystery Series

The title adds to the story because the enemy is so obvious, we know the enemy until the enemy we think we know gets killed, so the enemy we know was the enemy isn’t, then we don’t know who the enemy is out of the growing list of potential enemies we think we know could be the enemy. Just saying the title seemed to add to my knowing in the beginning. After all the surprising twists and turns and the surprise ending the title held a deeper meaning for me (no spoilers), thus added even more to the story. The whole thing is so nicely knit together. 

The suspense and mystery are glued together with humor and the personable main character’s ability to wiggle through, and on down the road that we call life. I love the main character, Letty Whittaker, and Donna White Glaser’s well developed humorous Mystery Series. I’m a happy reader with this one. On to Book Two. 

BOOK REVIEW - WISHFUL THINKING by Kamy Wicoff

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I love this sort of fairytale science fiction. This story deals with a common issue that most single mothers who struggle to balance, or just survive, a very demanding job, plus maintain home and family with what’s left over of their exhausted self at the end of the day; raising kids as an absentee parent; missing recitals; wishing the babysitter would actually help, not leave a mess. Wishing they could be in two places at once. I also like that once Jennifer Sharpe, the protagonist of the story, is granted her wish by some fluke of fate, via a miracle application installed on her phone, the “watch what you wish for” conundrum surfaced.

The time travel, relatable characters, and commanding writing skills of Kamy Wicoff had me hooked. Then, the highly intelligent scientist, inventor, math genius, eccentric, Dr. Diane Sexton was thrown into the mix, along with her lover, Dr. Susan Terry, a renown physicist in the annals of scientific achievement, and a good story became great to me. Strong, intelligent, trail-blazing women are a favorite of mine.

Great story. Great writing. This one is a keeper.