Just the Fax, Ma'Am

Rating:
Summary: Could Have Been Better
Review: Halfway through reading this book, I realized how much I disliked the lead character, Molly. She gets involved in the investigation of the murder of a man she hates and she can barely stand his wife. Her methods of investigation aren't credible, it's hard to believe that high school students would accept a 35 year old woman as being 20 years old. Her attempts to get information from the male suspects while playing golf were just as unbelievable.

The development of other characters is very uneven. Molly's husband barely registers as a character. The victim is killed far too early in the book to get any idea of what he's really like, beyond what the suspects say. Some characters are brought in for just a scene or two and then disappear. There are several suspects during the course of the book, but the murderer turns out to be someone that barely registers as a character.

The book shows some promise. There are some humorous moments and I enjoyed the descriptions of the greeting cards Molly thought up, in fact, I wish they had been used as illustrations in the book.

Rating:
Summary: Tries to hard to be funny
Review: I am always ready to read a witty mystery and was anxious to dive into this one. I was disappointed at the forced humor of the greeting card variety. Perhaps I should have been warned by the career of erstwhile sleuth, Molly, who happens draw cartoons for, among other things, greeting cards. Even more annoying is the total implausibility of her putting up with the obnoxious wife of the murdered man. There are some reasonably humorous moments and I was not able to predict the story line. Others may find this book more enjoyable than I did. I just prefer my humor done in Janet Evanovich's style.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I really enjoyed the first book in this series and was anxious to read the second. What a let down.

Molly came off as nothing more than an annoying buttinsky who had no reason at all to be involved in this investigation. Why would she stick her neck out, and risk her family, for someone she hates? Why would she put her children in danger? Why would she keep pushing herself into the investigation when the police and her husband told her to back off? Why did the police allow her to keep interfering, even after they told her to back off? A grown woman can't think of a better way to get information than to attempt to pose as a teenager? If she went to the high school posing as a college student from across the country, why would it matter if she didn't speak the same lingo as the high school kids?

Aside from the fact that the murdered man's wife was her arch-enemy in school, she had no tie to the whole thing...so added to the fact that she and the wife still don't like each other, and the man's wife treats her like dirt, it was ridiculous that she'd get herself this deeply involved and put so much at risk. And the ways she went about it were completely ludicrous. I certainly hope the rest of this series is better because Ms. O'Kane is batting about .500 right now.