Hit or Missus

A promising series

Peri Minneopa, whose name gets a lot of mileage in the story (Miss Menopause, etc.), has left behind the housecleaning biz and remade herself as a private investigator--a caseload that mostly involves cheating spouses. When a wealthy developer hires her to follow his wife, Peri discovers more than she bargained for, starting with the unexpected deaths of her neighbors, first an elderly man and then, a few weeks later, his widow. This is an odd whodunit: we kind of know who from early in the book, but not why, and one final twist caught me by surprise. This book is a smooth read, varying from gently sarcastic humor to edge-of-the-seat suspense. The descriptions are realistic and compelling. Best of all, the author's voice seldom gets in the way of the reading experience. Most appealing is the relationship between Peri and her boyfriend, Skip, a police detective. I really wanted to like Peri, who struck me at the beginning as a sensible heroine, with some age and experience to her. Unfortunately, about two-thirds of the way through the book I decided she and I would never be best friends. Granted, she's much easier to take than the "mean girls" who target her, but too many of the women in this book evidently never made it past the high school level of relationships. As the book wore on, though, I had less and less ability to empathize with Peri, primarily because she does something she knows is wrong . and she won't apologize, because she is so convinced she's right. Her inexperienced bravado and lack of common sense would get her (or somebody else) killed if this were reality. I prefer for professional women to act like professionals, especially when they are in a field dominated by men.

No text was provided for this review.