Friday, June 27, 2014

REVIEW OF BLONDIE AND THE HITMAN, A HUMOROUS MYSTERY

BLONDIE AND THE HITMAN, by Kathy Shaw, is the first of the Darla Bodecker mysteries and is liberally sprinkled with humor, suspense, and a dash of romance. Darla is not your average private eye. She’s not even your average woman. She’s sexy, sassy, smart, and determined to solve each case given her. Darla’s office and apartment are on the floor above Pete’s Diner in New York City. Since Pete is more than her landlord, he lets Darla use his diner’s back corner booth as her office most of the time. That’s where prospective clients can find her drinking coffee and smoking while she talks to Pete.


In the opening, Darla is in her usual booth when a beautiful blond woman slides in opposite Darla. The woman claims to have lost her memory and says that frightening-looking men are following her and she doesn’t know why. Darla dubs the woman Blondie and at first believes she is a co-conspirator in one of Pete’s practical jokes. But when a menacing looking man appears and follows Blondie out of the diner, Darla springs into action with her unique detecting skills. She learns Blondie is the target of the Russian mob and must discover why and how to protect Blondie.

At times, Darla is not above coercing her cop ex-husband Dutch to obtain information for her. Obviously Dutch is sorry he cheated on Darla and lost her, but now he’s tied to the bimbo with whom he cheated. Darla holds no illusions about her ex, but needs his help at times for details only the police can access. When she needs other masculine help, it’s Pete who fills the role. Pete is protective of Darla but knows better than to let her know. 

Darla leads a tempestuous and hilarious life.  Readers who love Janet Evanovich will take pleasure in reading this book. BLONDIE AND THE HITMAN is a fast-paced, fun read in which Ms Shaw includes laugh out loud scenes featuring fresh characterizations. I particularly liked Ms Shaw’s fresh voice and writing style in this 134 page mystery. I thoroughly enjoyed BLONDIE AND THE HITMAN and eagerly await the next Darla Bodecker mystery. I hope Ms Shaw writes fast!

I give BLONDIE AND THE HITMAN 5 out of 5 with an extra star for originality.

You can buy the book at:  Amazon                  Nook                  Kobo

About the author:

Kathy Shaw, Author


Kathy Shaw is just as sassy, sexy, and smart as her Darla Bodecker character. But Kathy doesn’t solve mysteries, she writes them along with romances. She is the author of the humorous contemporary romances HIDE AND SEEK and I DO, KINDA and the historical romance TWIN TRAP. One of her novellas is featured in RETURN TO CUPID. Kathy is living happily ever after with her hero husband in East Texas.

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