Most residents of the small Missouri town Stella Hardesty
calls home know her as the feisty, middle-aged owner of the local sewing shop.
Few, however, know about her unusual, not-quite-legal side business, which
involves roughing up the men who rough up their women. Things are going fine
for Stella until Brandy shows up. She’s the scheming ex-wife of Sheriff “Goat”
Jones, whom Stella was just starting to get cozy with. To make matters worse, a
tornado blows through town and destroys the snack shack at the demolition derby
track, pulling up the foundation and exposing a woman’s body that had been
buried below. All signs point to Neb Donovan as the killer—he laid the foundation,
and it’s no big secret that Neb was a different man during that time since he
was still addicted to pain killers back then. But Stella knows Neb and can’t
believe he’d hurt a fly, and his frantic wife begs Stella to investigate and
clear her husband’s name. As usual, Stella is soon in way over her head and her
own life might even be at stake.
I messed up and read this second book before its predecessor,
Bad Day for Sorry, but that didn’t
affect my enjoyment of this story. Stella reminds me of an older, funnier, and
tougher version of Stephanie Plum. And, okay, more hillbilly. I found the humor
clever and the characters real, relatable, and loveable. Another advantage this
book has over Evanovich is that there’s an actual mystery, with twists, turns, and
surprises. The main reason I liked it, though, is that it reminded me of my own
small hometown and it just cracked me up. I’ll definitely be ready the rest of
the series, and I recommend it for anyone who likes Evanovich or other humorous
mysteries.
No comments:
Post a Comment