Annette Sandoval

I picked up Spitfire very cheaply for my kindle,, and I must say that the price is right. Despite flashes of cleverness and a catchy opening, Sandoval falls back on some very silly yet predictable plotting, and the book loses its initial zing.

Receptionist Tomi is dealing with an unpleasant job, when her ex is found dead in his refrigerator. Can she unravel the mystery whilst juggling a demanding boss and a new love interest?

The summary highlights one of Spitfire's problems - it wants to be show more romance, comedy, crime novel, thriller, all wrapped up in one. But such a tonal diversity would be a challenge for any writer, and Sandoval is noticeably better at some of the genres than others.

Spitfire starts out funny and quirky. This was the strongest part of the book. Tomi is not an especially in-depth character but her wisecracks were amusing enough. Likewise the romance, whilst utterly predictable, is handled in a kind of bubbly, fun way.

But the book really falls down on the crime/thriller stuff, and this comes to dominate the latter half of the book. As a crime novel, the clues are arbitrary, often nonsensical and poorly structured. As a thriller, you're never in any doubt that Tomi will pull through, and Sandoval's narrator and the flagrant implausibility of the characters, plot and dialogue involved with the crime sequence pushes away tension like a skilled masseuse.

It's much better, for everyone, when books finish stronger than they began. Unfortunately the opposite was the case with this one. show less

Not sure why I got this book - some link or ther says "you might like this book" and as it was free courtesy of Amazon prime I thought why not indeed. The first part of the book was okay but then I really got enthused. Yes it's a thriller, the story line isn't that deep, but the characters are superb. It moves along briskly and certainly eventually I couldn't put it down. The characters were so real and appealing I was imagining them in my mind's eye especially the central character the show more heroine Tami Reyes. Somewhat reminiscent of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum.

This would make a superb movie. show less

Título original en Inglés. The Directory of the Saints. D.R. 1997, Annette Sandoval.
De ésta edición 1997, D.R. Aguilar, Altea, Taurus, Alfaguara, S .A de C.V. Ave. Universidad 767, Col. del Valle. México, 03100, D.F.
Publicado por un convenio establecido con Dutton Signet, División de Penguin Books, U.S.A.