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. 

BINGO, by Rita Mae Brown

If it is true that laughter is the best medicine, then Rita Mae Brown's, BINGO, will cure anything. I laughed so hard! The small southern town of Runnymede, Maryland, is split down the middle by the Mason-Dixon line. The war between the states is still being played out, and how could it not be?! In trouble with the law in the South? Run north across Town Square and you're free of that jurisdiction. Two sheriff's, two city halls; hilarious!

Nickel Smith is often (always) smack-in-the-middle of her mother and aunts' outrageous sisterly competitiveness. And I do mean outrageous. One of my favorite examples is when her nearly ninety-year-old aunt, Louise, sometimes called Aunt Wheezie, wears falsies when competing with her sister, Julia, sometimes called Juts, for the attention of a newly arrived, available, Ed Tutweiler Walters. The antics these octogenarians pulled were not befitting their age and made me forget mine as this sort of funny is ageless!! 

Nickel is a newspaper journalist, born and breed. When the town's only newspaper, the Clarion, is sold out from under her feet her world seems to be crumbling down around her. But, with the help of friends and happenstance, the Mercury newspaper is established giving Nickel her much-needed newspaper job, and the town an opposing daily. 

This book was published in 1989, before being gay was a fad. Back when coming out of the closet could close a lot of doors. Yet, the main character, Nickel, is a proud publicly professed lesbian, amongst other well-rounded qualities culminating in a well developed, fascinating main character, surrounded by a family and town of "characters". Funny, funny, funny.

A friend loaned me this book. Guess I will have to give it back. 

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.  

BOOK REVIEW - Blessed Is the Busybody, by Emilie Richards

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I was hooked into this delightfully tangled “cozy mystery” from the first sentence on. Teddy, the youngest daughter of the minister and his wife, is going to bury the cat again. Hooked! From there Emilie Richards nailed all the mystery writing prerequisites of a centered plot coupled with compelling characters, and small town setting that is all so relatable. I like that the murders aren’t gruesome detailed descriptions of gore. That the suspense is bundled up in levity. I really, really enjoyed this book. I was lucky enough to be given a copy of the first in the series MINISTRY IS MURDER and am relishing the thought of four more books to go.

In Emilie Richards’ website bio, interestingly enough, I found that she is the wife of a retired minister, although that little coincidence (she says) doesn’t influence her writer’s creative imagination or brilliant cozy mystery works. However she does it I vote yes! and she gets five stars and a fan for life from me.

Under The Sun: It Takes A Strong Woman To Raise A Neighborhood

Under The Sun: It Takes A Strong Woman To Raise A Neighborhood: Last night, I had a chat with a patient, like I always do. Every night I chat with my patients in an effort to keep them calm, comfortable...