Totally Fishy

Welcome back Miller sisters! Totally Fishy is the second installment in Gale Borger’s hilarious Miller Sisters Mysteries series. (Say that five times real fast, I dare you) As with the first book in this series, Totally Buzzed, Totally Fishy opens up funny, reads smoothly, keeps the reader totally engaged, and ends perfectly.

Totally Fishy opens in the middle of the Venezuelan jungle with the completely scrumptious Dr. Evo Castillo trekking through the mud, bugs, and unexpected torrential rain with is assistant Luis. We learn quickly that Evo is a brilliant scientist with a very short temper and a passion for protecting the environment. (FYI: Evo’s little tantrums are one of the highlights of this novel. Never underestimate the value show more of a good hissy fit!) The two men have been sent on a simple and routine assignment: go to the company’s oil well site and ensure that all environmental policies and procedures are being followed. This routine assignment quickly turns into anything but routine when the men discover a small yet remote lagoon that is absolutely covered in mostly dead fish. Evo’s mood continues to deteriorate when he and Luis are shot at while trying to collect samples of the water and the fish. Huh? Apparently the environmental codes aren’t being followed and someone desperately wants to cover up this fact.

Halfway across the world in southeastern Wisconsin is Dr. Sam Fernandini one of the world’s leading ichthyologists or as Evo prefers to think of her the Bitch-thyologist who is happily on vacation and visiting her good friend and old college roommate Fred Miller. Evo knows that the only way to really find out if his employer is to blame for the dead fish is to meet with Sam and work together; a prospect that leaves him both cranky and a bit horny  Evo enlists the help of his younger brother Tony (coincidentally Sam’s assistant), his own assistant Luis and Luis’s brother, Alfredo to get the water and fish samples to the States. The four men arrive in Wisconsin in short order and are immediately welcomed into the Miller sister’s world. Unfortunately, right behind the weary travellers are two completely inept assassins tasked with killing all four men and Dr. Sam.

It may seem odd that this large group of people, many of which are strangers to one another should mesh so seamlessly and so quickly but Borger makes it work. Fred and Buzz are the most personable of the Miller sisters and have no problem jumping right in to help solve the dead fish mystery. Luis and Alfredo, although minor characters in the grand scheme of things are delightful and immediately loveable, and then there is the rest of the cast and crew including the Miller sister’s mom and her geriatric circle of gossip mongers, Buzz’s love interest, sheriff J.J. Green, and the dogs, Hilary (who still has gas issues) and Wes. It is the character interaction and witty dialogue that really drives the plot forward. All of the cast and crew are involved in what becomes a much larger problem than a few dead fish. In fact, the problem becomes so large that Buzz, Fred, Sam, and Evo must travel back to South America, dodge numerous life-threatening moments, and patch one another up as they work to clear an oil company’s name, discover why there is an undocumented mining project near the dead lagoon, save the remaining fish from extinction, and bring down two assassins. Holy hell that’s a lot of drama!
While it sounds like Totally Fishy has a lot to deal with, it really all gets dealt with in a most satisfactory and amusing way. Borger simply doesn’t leave any loose ends. In dealing with all the drama and the various issues, Borger creates some truly magical and often hilarious moments. There is the swimming pool incident, the shopping trip to Gander Mountain, the car bomb, the kind of dead cat, the big reveal, the crazy old lady who pole dances for the entire town, and the movie scene at the end with Buzz, J.J. and the dogs. All of these moments are woven almost perfectly into the major plot line; they are not tangents by any means.

The bottom line: to be completely punny, I’m totally hooked on this book! I love the Miller sisters, I adore the humor, and find the mystery/crime portion of the plot to be a nice balance of believable and crazy. As with the first book in this series, Totally Buzzed, Totally Fishy will appeal to a wide range of reader’s and provide you with a hard to put down distraction. Happy reading! show less