Book ~ "Calamity Jayne" (2006) Kathleen Bacus

From Amazon ~ Everything Tressa Jayne Turner does quickly morphs into disaster. Having been fired from almost every job in Knoxville, Iowa, she is finally holding down two dead-end positions, but she still manages to get into trouble when she accidentally takes someone else's car from a dark store parking lot and discovers that the trunk holds a stash of money and the corpse of a sleazy local attorney. By the time the law shows up, body and cash are gone. With Tressa's reputation, no one believes her story, not even her love-hate interest, a ranger named Rick. But Rick's crafty grandfather knows something's up, and he eagerly signs on as Tressa's sleuthing buddy. Eventually, Tressa's tale gains credibility as the killer decides to come after her, too. Dumb blond jokes aimed at Tressa are peppered throughout the book, but in the end, the "dumb blond" gets the last laugh. Fans of Janet Evanovich will be glad to see that you don't always have to go to the burgh for mirthful murder and mayhem.

I like mysteries with entertaining comical writing so I had high hopes for this book.

The above description implies that it will appeal to Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum fans. I like that series ... this is a Stephanie Plum wannabe.

I really wanted to like this book. The author tried hard to be funny and sarcastic ... but I found at times that she tried too hard. She did a lot (a lot!!) of comparing. Here are some examples so you know what I mean ...

• It would be all over town quicker than the flu after Christmas vacation.
• The police were moving slower than the line at the drive-up bank on a sweltering Friday afternoon at quitting time
• The police had rejected my theory faster than Darva Conger rejected her who-wants-to-marry-a-millionaire.

These are some examples just over a couple pages. It happened all the time and I found this writing style annoying.

I liked Tressa but thought she got away with a lot in her desire to solve this mystery. The interactions between her and "Ranger Rick", her potential love interest, were really juvenile (they are in their 20s). I liked Gramma and Grandpa Joe, though.

Despite all this, I kept reading.

Then I got to the ending, which I didn't buy ... I kinda went "huh ... are you serious?" So after all that, I was let down by the ending.

I won't be rushing out to read any more in this series.