Middle-aged widow Stella Hardesty owns and operates a sewing shop in rural Missouri. Sounds pretty tame, but that's just her day job. She also has a side business helping battered women with the abusive men in their lives. As a former domestic violence victim herself, Stella knows what her clients are going through and she knows how to help them. But when young Chrissy Shaw asks her for help, Stella realizes she might be in over her head, as Chrissy's deadbeat wife-beating husband ran off with their two-year-old boy. When Stella and Chrissy realize there might be drug dealers involved as well (long story), the search for the boy becomes even more desperate.
Though you can't tell from the description, this is a pretty funny book. In the style of Janet Evanovich's work, Hardesty's wacky characters get into all kinds of shenanigans but always come out on top. I really like Stella's voice and the way that she became her badass self at an older age. She shows that it's never too late to turn your life around. The secondary characters, particularly Chrissy and Stella's preteen neighbor Todd, really come to life as well. The plot is all over the place, but I'm okay with that. I feel like it's one of those mysteries where you don't try to figure out what happens--you just sit back and enjoy the twists and turns. And enjoy them I did.
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