Double Trouble (A Davis Way Crime Caper #9)

Author:  Gretchen Archer
Genre:   Mystery

Hardcover: Trade Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN:  9781635115703; 9781635115673
Henery Press Publishing
256 Pages
$31.95; $15.95; $6.99 Amazon
June 9, 2020

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Davis Way smells T-R-O-U-B-L-E when she's fired from half of her part-time job at the Bellisimo Resort and Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi.  The quarter-time job she's left with is lulling her to sleep, exactly what she's doing when Birdy James, centenarian director of the casino's Lost and Found department, disappears.  With five million dollars.

Davis just can't help believing Birdy didn't do it, if no no other reason, she's too old to spend it.  If Davis doesn't find the little old lady and the money fast, she'll lose what's left of her job, at which point, there goes her Belissimo everything.

What she needs is a good luck charm.  What she gets is her home invaded by hard-headed women, a soft-hearted little man, and major carpet troubles, the combination of which sends Davis's already suspicious mind into overdrive, and that lands her between a jailhouse rock and a very hard place.

A little less conversation and a lot more action are called for if Davis has any chance of saving herself, her marriage, her job, and the heartbreak hotel she calls home.

✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽

Davis Way Cole lives on the twenty-ninth floor of the Bellissimo Resort and Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi.  This is due to the fact that she's the wife of Bradley, General Manager, and mother to a pair of three-year-old twin grils.  She's also part of a three-person security team for the resort, along with Fantasy and Baylor (just Baylor).  When her husband puts her in charge for the week he's going to be out of town - along with owner Richard Sanders and Davis's boss No Hair (forever), she agrees, thinking, what could go wrong?

Aside from the fact that five million dollars has completely disappeared?  And there's an Elvis convention filling the rooms and the town?  And the woman who runs the Lost and Found - where the money was left - is also gone?  Not much...unless you count Davis's mother, her ex-ex-mother-in-law, a missing cashier, a howling cat, frisky dog, and a smell so rancid it will put you in a coma...

When Davis and Fantasy are on the hunt for the missing money (and Birdy, the old, old lady who runs the Lost and Found) they don't want to tell Baylor.  Because he'll squeal and tell their boss and anyone else who will listen.  So the two women try everything to get the money back, but all that occurs is more problems..and more.  And what ensues is complete chaos, Davis trying to find a moment to regroup and not go insane, and her mother spending all her time cooking everything she can. (because cooking is love).

The casino is a madhouse, there are Elvii (or Elvises, depending on who's arguing the point) everywhere, and Davis is frantic to put her hands on the money and keep her family safe.  She's also discovering that what seems like an accident wasn't, but when she finds this out it may be too late for all of them -- in more ways than one.

It's a wild roller coaster ride from one end of the casino to another, and one floor to another, moving tomato plants, gawd-awful smells, and several missing persons needing to be located.  Meanwhile, she's babysitting a woman who's nearly a hundred, and trying to stay out of the sight of her mother and ex-ex-mother-in-law (a long, long story best saved for another time, and who shouldn't even be there in the first place, according to Davis).

Ms. Archer takes us on this crazy journey from the first page, and keeps us moving through the story like we're trying to find our way out of a house of mirrors at a carnival.  Without help.  With people trying to kill us.  It's fascinating, humorous, suspenseful, and even a little maddening (but that might just be Bea Crawford).  If you blink, you'll miss something.

It's an old saying: follow the money.  But in this case it's true - if you can find the money; which Davis can't.  So there's that.  But it starts with that thread and leads into a whole lot more, until you have a regular tapestry in front of you that she needs to unravel.  And it's the unraveling that's the most fun you'll ever have.  Highly recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Double-Trouble-Davis-Crime-Caper/dp/1635115701/ref

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3321678452

More on Gretchen Archer's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/a/gretchen-archer/

Double Agent (A Davis Way Crime Caper #8)

Author:  Gretchen Archer
Genre:  Mystery

Hardcover; Trade Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9781635114985; 9781635114959
Henery Press Publishing
252 Pages
[Price TBA] $14.90; $6.99 Amazon
March 26, 2019

✮✮✮✮✮

THIS JUST IN:  On the weather front, Category Four Hurricane Kevin took a last-minute left and is headed straight for the Bellissimo Resort and Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi.  In breaking news, Undercover Casino Operative Davis Way has one foot out the evacuation door when fifty million dollars disappear, and in its place, a dead body.

In other news, if forced to ride out the storm on the hotel's thirteenth-floor fortress, Davis won't be alone.  Her husband, Bradley, her best friend, Fantasy, and a crew of highly trained first responders will be hurricane hostages too, along with Mississippi State Gaming Agents, a FEMA agent, an insurance agent, a State Special Agent, and an Emergency Response Agent -- at least one of them a double agent.

The good news is her high school reunion is cancelled.  The bad news is everything else.  the fake news features a castaway pig named Bacon.

The hurricane heist headlines will be sensational.  If Davis survives to see them.

✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽

Davis Way Cole works at the Bellissimo Resort and Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi as a sort of "secret super spy."  When she's needed, she does whatever necessary to keep things running exactly the way they should, even if it means turning into a female James Bond.

Right now she and her family - her husband, President and CEO Bradley, and twin daughters Bexley and Quinn, need to evacuate the casino because of impending hurricane Kevin.  But that can't be done until they remove all the cash from the machines, and there's only herself and her partner Fantasy to do it.  The rest of their team - Baylor and No Hair - are in Hawaii for Baylor's wedding to Davis's nanny July.

Unfortunately, they also have in residence Davis's lookalike Bianca Sanders, who, along with her husband Richard, own the casino (Richard is in Norway) a couple of women from Michigan who couldn't leave because of flight problems, the Bellissimo Storm Team (first responders and specialists), and a television production crew, and a couple of gaming agents.

But things never go according to plan, especially so when Davis and Fantasy hear a gunshot while removing the cash boxes from the machines.  They follow the sound and find Davis's ex-husband Eddie (who is there because for some reason unknown to Davis - and unwanted - her high school reunion was supposed to take place at the casino) apparently shot, and his girlfriend Danielle - Davis's nemesis - lying in a pool of blood.  Which turns out not to be hers.  But which also means it has to belong to someone else, and that someone else isn't Eddie.  Which means there's a shooter in the casino, and they need to find out who and where that person is.

Needless to say, Davis isn't going anywhere, and neither is anyone else; which means they're all going to be huddled up on Disaster, the unnamed thirteenth floor that Bianca's father built as a fortress in just this kind of emergency and which no one is supposed to know even exists.

Now that the stage is set for riding out a hurricane in a deserted casino, holed up in a fortress that isn't there, let me be clear:  In Davis's life, things never go as easy as riding out a hurricane in a fortress.  This is about to be made clear in her latest escapade.  Which all takes place in under 48 hours.

It's an intense ride, rather like being on a roller coaster - backwards, upside down, blindfolded, and in the rain.  Even if you could see, it wouldn't be a pleasant trip.  Davis finds out that there's more at stake than finding a lone shooter in the casino.  It's finding out who killed the man on the floor... and who took the fifty million dollars they removed from the machines.  But, unfortunately, the only witnesses are Danielle, who seems to have amnesia, and Eddie, who's dumber than a sloth (which is the dumbest animal on the planet).  Which means Davis has no help at all.

What ensues is worse than chaos, and Davis is stuck right in the center of it, like being in the eye of the hurricane.  Endlessly.  With no way out.  It's full of suspense, intrigue, conspiracy, and cunning.  The tale is masterful, with Ms. Archer pulling you into the story immediately, and right from the amusing phone call with her mother (who wants her out of the casino now) to that first gunshot.  By that time, you are hooked.

But there's more afoot to be found:  People who are not what they seem, and even what appears to be forthright problems on the surface turn out to be something else entirely.  (Sorry, but in saying more I'd be pretty much telling you enough so that you wouldn't need to read the book - so I won't).  It's enough to say that not only are the twists and turns aplenty, it's a tale that weaves so many threads throughout you could create a tapestry.  It's crazy.  Insane.  Totally enthralling.  It makes me grateful I don't have to live Davis's life.

Some of the characters are annoying (even I was starting to hate Eddie and Danielle as much as Davis) and I probably wouldn't have been able to keep from slapping Filet, so Davis has the better of me there.  Or more patience.  Either way.  I do think Bianca has grown on me, since I actually like her, too.  I don't know why.  I love Davis, Bradley, and the rest of the crew, who are always there and always have each other's backs, and not a stupid one among them.  I even like her parents (her mother, while trying at times, does have her moments).

When we reach the climax and everything starts to come together, it's woven so tightly you couldn't pull the threads apart if you tried.  It's a delightful narrative, engaging, and those last few moments when the action finds it way to a close are surprising.  An ending to be proud of.  A book to be read and reread.  Highly recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Double-Agent-Davis-Crime-Caper/dp/1635114950/ref

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2746831823

More on Gretchen Archer's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/a/gretchen-archer/

Double Dog Dare (A Davis Way Crime Caper Book 7)

Author:  Gretchen Archer
Genre:  Mystery

Trade Paperback; Audio CD; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9781635113167; 9781541453975
Henery Press Publishing
274 Pages
$15.51; $19.64; $6.99 Amazon
December 14,2017

✮✮✮✮✮

Problem #1:  Bootsy Howard.  Davis Way Cole lives a (relatively) quiet, (somewhat) simple, and (completely) witch-free life with her husband and twin daughters on the 29th floor of the Bellissimo Resort and Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi.  Until Bootsy Howard shows up demandig a million dollars.

Problem #2:  Princess Smucker.  What was marketing thinking when they booked the Southern Canine Association's annual dog show at the Bellissimo?  And what was Davis thinking when she agreed to let a dog stay with her?  For a week?  In her home?  The home where she lives a (fairly) quiet, (reasonably) simple, and (totally) manicotti-free life?

Problem #3:  Leverette Urleen, MD.  The last thing Davis needs is an unsolicited house call from Pine Apple, Alabama's latest excuse for a doctor.  But since he's there, considering she has a dead body on ice, she might as well have him determine the cause of death.  Which he doesn't.  Nor is he any help finding the body when Davis loses it.  On top of all that, he won't leave, further disrupting Davis's (more or less) quiet, (to a certain degree) simple, and (utterly) seersucker-free life.  A life that's about to go to the dogs.  Unless Davis can learn a few tricks.  Fast.

✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽

Davis Way Cole is waiting for her sister Meredith's visit.  Meredith and her best friend Vreeland Howard are coming for a dog show that's been booked at the Bellissimo, where Davis works as a super secret spy/security expert.  But when she answers her door, it's not Meredith but Vree, and she explains that Meredith and Bubbles - Vree's dog, who is going to be entered in the show - are arriving a little later.

But Meredith doesn't arrive.  Neither does the dog.  Instead, Vree's sort-of mother-in-law Bootsy shows up.  Bootsy is mean enough to be a witch, and people have accused her of such.  Bootsy is also there because Meredith isn't coming unless Davis gives her one million dollars.  Davis, of course, doesn't have a million dollars, but if she doesn't get it, then Pastor Gully (who apparently has kidnapped both Meredith and Bubbles) threatens to leave them on a street corner in Guadalajara, Mexico.

But the troubles don't end there - Davis's boss 'No Hair' shows up at her door with what appears to be some kind of snarling dog and tells her to take care of it.  The owners - lottery winners who are also hicks - have checked in and are spending money and creating havoc.  When the dog decides to 'leak' on Davis's floor, she calls housekeeping, and they send up two burly men to clean up who look more like they should be in security detail.

So Davis calls her best friend Fantasy to come help get Bootsy out of her home, and into Fantasy's bonus room above her garage.  Which isn't easy - and then still has to decide how to rescue her sister and find out who the dog belongs to; not to mention the 'schmucks' who are running amok in the casino causing problems.

At least Bradley is out of town on business, so she has one less thing to worry about; but just when things can't get any worse, they do.  Suddenly there's a dead body, a doctor who doesn't know what he's doing, and now she has two dogs to contend with.  Will Davis be able to save her sister and her marriage before Bradley returns?  Can Davis and Fantasy keep No Hair from finding out what they're doing?  And how will she find a million dollars without robbing the Bellisimo in time to save her sister?

Yes, it's just another day in the world of Davis Way Cole, Super Spy and security expert for the Bellissimo.  And I can't say too much about this book without giving too much away.  But I will say that the characters are indeed fun to be around.  Sometimes I feel sorry for Fantasy, but then again, she walks right into it, so it's really hard to do so.

But Davis has her hands full with twin daughters and a near-hysterical woman from small-town Pine Apple where she grew up, who faints at anything and everything; and a physician (?) who's lascivious to the max and doesn't know a wart from a mole (or cares).  But we have a case of a missing body, missing people, missing cars, a missing sister and missing dogs - I don't think I'm missing anything here (but I could be).

At any rate, this book is both suspense and hilarious, if it can be such, at the same time.  Davis is one smart cookie, and she needs to be to deal with these looney tunes - which includes her boss Bianca, who expects Davis to impersonate her wearing the most ridiculous outfits yet.  But then again, we've all known Bianca isn't all there anyway...

In the end, this book is definitely on my list of one of the best this year.  Ms. Archer's writing is impressive, the characters are well-defined and full of life, and the plot highly believable.  When we come to the end and it is all sorted out, I was sorry it ended so soon.  A book I will reread more than once.  Highly recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Double-Dare-Davis-Crime-Caper/dp/1635113164/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2314200284

More on Gretchen Archer's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/a/gretchen-archer/

Double Up (A Davis Way Crime Caper Book #6)

Author:  Gretchen Archer
Genre:  Mystery, Suspense

Hardcover; Trade Paperback; Audio CD; Ebook; Audiobook
ISBN #:  9781635111842; 9781635111811; 9781541453968
Henery Press
$29.90; $15.95; $17.40; $6.99 Amazon
262 Pages
March 21, 2017

✮✮✮✮✮

Fasten your seatbelts for non-stop action as stiff competition blows into town and the resulting turbulence threatens to take down the Bellissimo Resort and Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi.  Super Secret Spy Davis Way Cole, who lives on the twenty-ninth floor of the hotel with her CEO husband and newborn twins, takes it hard.  If the casino goes belly up, she won't be a stay-at-home mom because she won't have a home.  Not to mention her husband won't have a job.  Davis can't find a way to stop the inevitable end of Bellissimo life she loves until her ex-ex-mother-in-law shows up, unexpected and definitely uninvited.  Davis makes the best of a bad Bea Crawford situation and recruits her for a little corporate espionage work, which would've been great, had Bea not turned out to be the world's worst spy.  Ever.  Seatbacks and tray tables in their upright positions as we prepare for a bumpy ride with babies, bankruptcies, besties, and shrimp.  (Shrimp?)  Enjoy your flight.

✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽

Davis Way Cole is the ex-Secret Super Spy for the Bellissimo Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi.  'Ex' because she's retired - now taking care of two eight-month-old baby girls, Bex and Quinn - while her husband Bradley is left to run what's left of the casino.  I say this because there's a new sheriff in town:  The Blitz, which has been built right across the river from the Bellissimo, and they've not only taken the Bell's staff, but most of their customers as well.  They've become practically a ghost town on their own, and the owner, Richard Sanders (and his wife Bianca) have decamped for the lights of Las Vegas and left Bradley to salvage what he can.

Davis blames herself, because if she hadn't been so busy being pregnant and then motherhood, she believes she would have known what the Blitz was up to all along and none of this would have happened; she would have been at the top of her game and realized they were building a mega-casino instead of what she originally thought - a football stadium.  Why a stadium?  Because the person who now runs the Blitz is the grandson of the owner, Elias Johnson, and an ex-football player.

Because of this, Davis has refused to leave her lavish penthouse, and has become as reclusive as Greta Garbo.  That is, until her ex-ex-mother-in-law Bea Crawford shows up and refuses to leave.  At first Davis is horrified, but when things start going even further south, she realizes she can use Bea in her own scheme to put things right again, and that's when she turns Bea into a spy herself (sort of).  But just when Davis thinks things are starting to look up, she hasn't got a clue as to how dark they can become...

As a great fan of the series I was really looking forward to this entry, and for the most part, wasn't disappointed.  While it started out slow - it's not that interesting to follow a storyline of someone who spends all their time in an apartment with their babies - but once the plot got going - and so did Davis, it really took off (see what I did there?).

There isn't a lot I can say about the plot without giving away the crux of the story, so let it suffice to say that Davis is tired of what is going on around her and decides she's the one who needs to save the company (and her home).  She learns from Bea what is going on over at the Blitz; decides she can do something even better at the Bellissimo, and sets forth on a plan to save the resort and her husband's job in the process.   What ensues is quite humorous at times, suspenseful at others, there was even one scene between Fantasy and Davis that had me downright chuckling; plus Davis' reaction when she realizes why she's spending time with Bea is worth reading the book alone; not to mention what happens when Bea begins to take herself seriously as a spy.

In the end, it was a fun journey with an unexpected ending, and while not technically a murder mystery (although there is a murder, have no fear), it still gives you plenty to devour while you enjoy the book and wait for the next in the series to arrive.  Recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Double-Davis-Way-Crime-Caper/dp/1635111811/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2031437398

More on Gretchen Archer's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/a/gretchen-archer/

Double Knot (A Davis Way Crime Caper #5)

Author:  Gretchen Archer
Genre:  Mystery

Hardcover, Paperback, Ebook, Audiobook
ISBN #:  9781635110326, 9781635110296
268 Pages
$31.95, $15.95, $6.99, $24.99
April 12, 2016

Five Stars

Super spy Davis Way sets sail on a Caribbean cruise aboard the MS Probability with fifty billionaires, a boatload of Louis Vuitton luggage, Anderson Cooper, and her mother.  (Her mother?)  The weather is perfect, the seas are calm, and Suite 704 is spectacular.  Until the door slams shut.  For good.  Obviously, it's a system glitch.  Surely someone will show up to free Davis, Miss Hawaii, and the creepy staff.  But when the minutes turn to hours and the hours stretch into a day, Davis knows it's up to her.  With $50,000 in casino chips, a pot roast, and a crash course in banking, she races against the clock to determine why they're being held, stop the people behind it, and find a way out.  Secrets are revealed, antiquities are destroyed, and they're running out of dishes.  It's mayday on Probability when Davis Way realizes that only the truth will set her free.

********

Davis Way Cole is a security expert for the Bellissimo Resort and Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi.  She is also a 'body double' for the casino's owner, Bianca Sanders.  At present, both Davis and Bianca are both pregnant - Bianca ready to give birth and Davis pregnant with twins.  Since Bianca and Davis can also be taken for twins, it is Davis's current job in that she impersonate Bianca aboard the newest - and largest- luxury cruise ship (not a boat) ever.  The Probability was built for billionaires, with only fifty staterooms - very lush staterooms.  Everything is controlled electronically through V2 remotes, which carry everyone's personal information and are operable by a thumbprint.  They are not interchangeable.  They are the only thing that will allow anyone to move about the ship easily.  They have each person's private information on them.  And if you lose it, you will be taken off the ship.  Immediately.

So when Davis (Bianca) enters her private stateroom - which is more like a very large condo, actually, with bedrooms, salon, kitchen, pool, servants' quarters, etc., she and her traveling companions are amazed at how large it is.   Shortly after settling in, her power becomes disabled, and she is trapped - along with her mother Caroline, her work partner Fantasy, a butler, stateroom attendant, ship hostess Jessica DeLuna, and her (deaf) cat Anderson Cooper.

Things are not looking up when they lose power and Davis thinks it is merely a computer glitch and will be fixed shortly.  But then Davis receives a photo of her boss Jeremy, being held prisoner, and she realizes that she's being also held hostage for a reason.  She also comes to the realization that one of the people trapped with her is on the other side and there to make sure she doesn't try to escape...

Being in close quarters with her (hyper-critical) mother and (whiny) Jessica (whom everyone hates)  isn't helping either her or Fantasy try to figure out how to escape their floating prison and free their boss, but which one?  She's also determined to keep this from her mother, who is recovering from a cancer scare.  Yet Davis and Fantasy know that they're running against the clock to find out who is holding them and why...

This book was an absolute delight to read.  Ms. Archer weaves a tidy tale of intrigue aboard a futuristic luxury liner, one in which Davis must use all her skills in order to find a route of escape without endangering those dear to her.  We also see a side of Davis that we have not seen before, and it gives her a little more humanity, which makes her a little more real.

I was enthralled by the descriptions of the ship itself, and quite pleased with how tightly knit a narrative it was; everything seeming not only possible but believable.  With Davis not only going "old school" in order to save her friends, but also using her computer skills to the max, it kept me riveted in the story from practically the beginning to the end.

I also love the fact that Davis tells the story in her own (sarcastic) way, with little asides to her audience that are quite hilarious at times.  There is one ongoing subplot with Davis and Fantasy that involves dishes which is extremely funny, and when her mother gets in on the action it becomes even funnier.  In fact, all the little subplots (involving the dishes, Jessica, Caroline's drinking, and even a Chinese antique) are all fodder for jokes.

With much of the action taking place in a stateroom (albeit a very large stateroom), Ms. Archer has proven she can take a cast of characters, keep them in one place, and still make an interesting story go a long way.  She has a flair for both telling a complex tale while managing to add plenty of humor.  When the story finally ends, it is completely satisfying.  Everything comes together just as it should, and it leaves one anticipating the next in the series.  Highly recommended.

http://www.amazon.com/Double-Knot-Davis-Crime-Caper/dp/1635110297/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1632631612

More on Gretchen Archer's books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/a/gretchen-archer/                                                                    

Double Mint (A Davis Way Crime Caper Book 4)

Author:  Gretchen Archer
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.

********

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.

http://www.amazon.com/Double-Mint-Davis-Crime-Caper/dp/1941962777/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1328275662