Genre: Mystery
Paperback
ISBN #: 97819419627705
Henery Press
267 Pages
$15.95 Amazon
July 21, 2015
Five Stars
It's convention season at the Bellissimo Resort and Casino and Davis Way Cole barely notices. It's hard to pay attention when you live in a Jambalaya Junkyard. But when Special Events Coordinator Holder Darby walks off the job just as five hundred Alabama bankers pour in the front door, Davis steps up.
Or would that be in? Definitely in. Davis steps in.
Not only has the convention director vanished, but a certain Bellissimo guest is missing. One who forgot to pack the million dollars he left in the bathtub. It looks like our redhead newlywed Super Secret Spy's lazy summer is over when the Bellissimo's vault is robbed. Can Davis connect the dots before it's too late? Can she get her Taser gun back from Bianca Sanders? Will she be stuck with Eddie Crawford's 1962 Cadillac forever? What Davis needs is a little faith. And a lot of luck.
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Davis Way Cole is newly married to Bradley, the General Manager of the Bellissimo Casino. Because of this, along with other factors, they have to temporarily reside in the mini-mansion upstairs which is, to Davis, Creole Hell. She also refers to herself as the casino's Super Secret Spy, often disguising herself when going out 'on a mission'.
When the casino's wedding/events planner, Holder Darby, quits, Davis has to step in as the "temporary Holder". And when things start to get sticky, she goes looking for Holder, but only finds her cat - or not. Taking the cat home with her, it turns out to be the cat from hell, screaming through the apartment at warp speed...
There is also the fact that a bankers' convention is taking place, and have installed their own slot machines, named Double Mint, and the security assigned is from Paragon, who has brought in their own techs to install the machines...
And the fact that Davis discovers a million dollars in counterfeit money in the room of a missing banker, and more than that in counterfeit platinum in the casino's vault...
And the fact that Davis' refrigerator is again on the fritz (a huge red monster), and she's smelling magnolias in her home, insisting to anyone around that the wife of the former general manager, the nutcase who designed the interior, Magnolia Thibodeaux, is coming in and snooping around looking for something.
Now we have laid the groundwork for an intricate mystery indeed. I hesitate to give you any more information, but will tell you that while it all starts out so simple - Holder quitting after having the mother of the groom put her in a headlock and Davis having to take her place - it turns into something more twisted and crazy than could be imagined. And no matter how Davis tries to convince everyone she knows what's going on (or possibly going on), no one believes her and tells her she's imagining things...which we know isn't the case.
Davis has a sixth sense when it comes to JDLR - just doesn't look right. And she's not above using subterfuge to find out the truth, even when it gets her into trouble. And trouble comes her way, in droves. Yet she pushes on, convinced that the missing real platinum is still on the hotel premises, that Paragon is trying to pull a fast one, that Magnolia is after something in Davis' mini-mansion, and that her friend and coworker Fantasy is getting in over her head...well, hopefully you get the picture.
This is not a quick read, nor should it be. Because it's like a chain that that you have to put together yourself, link by link. You get one piece, which leads to another, and another, etc. Yet through it all, Davis manages to maintain her sense of humor (which is hilarious), and my favorite scene in the book is the one with moonshine between her and Fantasy. Priceless!
Ms. Archer is one of the most talented writers I've come across, and this series is definitely a winner. Highly recommended, and I eagerly await the next in the series.
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