Kathleen Bacus

snarky, punfest, humor, amateur sleuth, women sleuths, murder

This book is just too much fun! Each character is quirky and well explored, the verbal and situational humor are hilarious, and the plot is well developed. The publisher's blurb is helpful, and no need for spoilers. No gratuitous erotica! Innuendos yes, but that's part of the fun! Well worth the price!

Tressa "Calamity" Jayne Turner is an early twenty-something girls who doesn't know what she wants to do with her life. Stuck in dead-end jobs and a history of social gaffes, Tressa Jayne can't seem to shake the persona of "dumb-blonde" and an accident waiting to happen. In this first book, Tressa discovers a dead body, but no one believes her. Her parents view her as a disappointment, her little sister is disgusted with her lack of focus and big brother Craig treats her like the butt of show more every joke. To make matters worse, the guy she secretly "likes" is her brother's best friend and side-kick when it come to making Tressa's life miserable, Ranger Rick Townsend. What's worse, she ends up teaming up with Rick's grandfather to solve the mystery of the disappearing body. She also adds her nutty grandmother and a big bad biker by the name of Manny into the mix and ticks-off everyone she knows.

The book made me laugh and I could empathize, don't ask.

Anyway, great cast of characters in this novel and enjoyed learning more about them. It was a silly, fun read. show less

This was a fun book but doesn't live up to it's marketing label. It was supposed to be a contemporary romance but honestly other than some love/hate name calling banter and a couple of smooches there wasn't much romance. It was more of a mystery but a weak one at that. I think the saving grace was that there were a few characters I loved. I loved the "hero's" grandpa who informed Tressa (aka Calamity Jayne) that he was the Green Hornet and she was his Kato and just needed to drive. This was show more before he pulled out a gun that would impress Dirty Harry for their protection which ended up stolen and used to murder a murderer.
I didn't like Bacus's way of wrapping up the mystery either. She builds up a somewhat suspenseful scene where the killer realizes Tressa is on to him/her and Bacus tries to continue the suspense by saying things like The Killer stared at Tressa. The Killer smiled a cold evil grin. So not identifying the killer during the big stand off for a a bit which I thought was a bit over kill and didn't make the mystery better. However, like I said there were some great (well, at least interesting) characters so I gave this book a 4 star rating and will read the next one. Oh and the blonde jokes peppered through the book were fun too. show less

Stephanie Plum with cowgirl boots, hot pink cowgirl boots. Tressa Jayne Turner is a cowgirl in Iowa, she's not a ranch hand but she's had a string of career disasters and is now working at a Wallmartish store as a clerk and a Dairy Queenish restaurant as an order taker, before she gets involved in a murder or three. If you like the Stephanie Plum series you'll enjoy the humor in this series and this first book also has a decent mystery.