Dating Can Be Murder

I picked up this book while waiting for Janet Evanovich to write her next Stephanie Plum novel based on a fellow LibraryThing member's recommendation. And if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Janet Evanovich must be enjoying the compliment of her life because the similarities between the two series are striking.

1. A funny heroine who relies more on luck than skill to track down criminals

2. A dilemma of choosing between too handsome sexy men who both want her: one is a Morelli-type cop, and the other is a bad boy former cop who owns his own private invesigating/bounty hunter company (he teaches her self defense and evens calls her 'Babe'.

3. A kooky grandparent who helps out.

4. A mother who is constantly trying to get her show more to turn over a new profession (the mother even says that 'these kind of things' never happen to realtors, in an effort to persuade her daughter to quit her job).

I could go on.

This book tries very hard to be like the Plum series, and it almost succeeds. It is definitely the best attempt I've found yet, but its not quite up to Evanovich's level just yet. Still, this is only the first in the series, and its not a bad start. While I wait for Lean Mean Thirteen, I plan to try the next Samantha Shaw mystery

Plot Summary:Outraged at discovering her condom-selling husband's infidelities, Samantha Shaw reinvents herself after his untimely death. She sells his prize car, has breast augmentation surgery, and purchases a dating service. But then bad people begin demanding money that her husband apparently skimmed as a drug runner. After someone who threatened her is killed, "Sam" reinvents herself a little more by becoming an amateur private investigator. The resultant interrogations and divagations, mostly dangerous and violent, get her in trouble with the hunky detective in charge of the case. show less