Leslie Langtry

ZERO stars

Hoalohanani “Nani” Johnson is *not* Hawaiian. She was born in Kansas to parents of Irish and German descent, but her mother has always had a fascination for Hawaii, hence her only daughter’s name. After her father died, Nani and her mother moved to Kauai, where Nani, who trained at Julliard, teaches ukulele and struggles to get performance gigs. But the three ukulele professionals already in place are all Hawaiian and do not welcome any competition from a haole. When one of show more them is murdered, suspicion turns to Nani.

This is just bad. The writing is hackneyed, the dialogue is tortured, the plot is ridiculous, and none of the characters is believable … well maybe Pastor Dan, who dresses as Elvis to perform weddings in the Blue Hawaii Wedding Chapel, is believable. I was particularly irritated by Nani’s internal dialogue, and all the animal similes (e.g. “like a rabid hyena” or “bug-eyed iguana”).

Even worse, in my opinion, is the lame attempt at humor in re Nani’s mother’s alcoholism. Alcoholism is *never* funny. It’s a disease that hurts not only the person suffering from it, but everyone around him/her. Making light of the number of mai tais or running out of rum or passing out is just plain not funny. Shame on Langtry for even trying to make it so.

Ah, well … it was a fast read and satisfied several challenges … but I’ll never get that time back. show less

Nani majored in ukulele, at Juilliard no less, and now spends her days playing it in Hawaii. Life is good, even if her mom is somewhat wacky. Ok, a lot wacky. But then Nani stumbles across a man dying in a parking lot. And another body at her work, almost on stage. And then, well, you get the idea! Unfortunately for Nani, she is the prime suspect and the detective in charge did not graduate at the top of his class. In fact, no help would be better than his help as far as Nani is concerned. show more In the midst of her troubles, her mom is suddenly not loony, which is really disturbing. There is action galore and humor abounds in this well-written clever cozy. show less

Leslie Langtry's S' More Murder is funny from the beginning to the kind and crammed with delicious mystery, a troop of girl scouts, a current boyfriend and an ex-boyfriend and international spy adventure.

Merry Wrath’s troop had won a nationwide contest for selling Girl Scout cookies so she need to take them and along with one of the mothers for an educational trip to Washington DC. Up until then,
the Japanese Mafia, the Yakuza, were hunting after Merry Wrath, former CIA spy. along her old show more boyfriend, Riley, her handler in the CIA. The Yakuza had thought that the two had murdered the mother of Lieko Ito, the boss of the Yakuza. Later she received a call for help from Riley but no further information. Without any clue to go on, she heads with the troop for their trip.

So we have an assortment of fun going on. The girls needed supervision and the mother who volunteered conveniently disappears whenever needed. The girls were curious and getting into things and quickly energized by sugar high snacks. Part of the excitement of trip was the girls becoming immediately attached to a King Vulture, the largest of all vulture with a colorful head. They called him Mr. Fancy Pants and he is a character that adds so much suspense and hilarity to this story. I will never forget him and after I looked up a picture on the Internet, I can understand why they were enchanted.

This is a fast paced, funny cozy that keeps you reading until the end. On my next trip, I definitely want to visit some of the places in this adventure like the Spy Museum. I wish that I had not missed the first two mysteries in this series and I am now a fan of Leslie Langtry.

I received an advanced copy of this book from the Publisher as a win from FirstReads but that in no way made a difference in my thoughts or feelings in this review. show less

There's a scene in this book in which the heroine is so awestruck by the handsome man who sits down at her Borders coffee-corner table that she ends up sprinkling salt in her latte.

That scene could serve as a metaphor for the entire book, which is an astonishing and unlikely mix of funny, fast-paced, chick-lit set against a totally off-the-wall background that could have come directly from a superhero comic.

Ginny Bombay is a widowed mother of a cute daughter. She's also a member of a family show more that has specialised in assassination for thousands of years, each child being initiated at the age of five, trained in the lethal arts, and obliged to make their first hit at fifteen.

Two story lines intertwine: Ginny's infatuation with Diego, the professional bodyguard she met in Borders, and her involvement with her family affairs. The two story lines come together and sour Ginny's relationship with Diego, but all ends well.

The ancient family of secret assassins provided both tension and comedy, but despite a total suspension of disbelief, one story element was too much to swallow. For a professional assassin who takes meticulous care in all her hits, and is aware of the penalty of prompt execution for any infringement of the family code, Ginny immediately blabs top-secret information to her sister and then to most of her relatives, presumably putting all of them at risk of sudden death.

This incongruity dropped my rating from five to four. Otherwise [b:'Scuse Me While I Kill This Guy|1147617|'Scuse Me While I Kill This Guy (Bombay Assassins, #1)|Leslie Langtry|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181403003s/1147617.jpg|1135077] is a marvellous tongue-in-cheek romp with a delightfully ebullient middle-aged protagonist.

Interesting that Ms Langtry (like several other authors) chose a title that puns on the mondegreen version of Jimi Hendrix's lyric, not the original. But then once the mondegreen went viral, even Jimi began to sing the incorrect version—I saw him do so live, which just goes to show my age. (So what's wrong with being a geriatric hippy, huh?) show less