CIA Assassin Fortune Redding is about to undertake her most difficult mission ever--in Sinful, Louisiana.
With a leak at the CIA and a price on her head by one of the world's largest arms dealers, Fortune has to go off grid, but she never expected to be this far out of her element. Posing as a former beauty queen turned librarian in a small, bayou town seems worse than death to Fortune, but she's determined to fly below the radar until her boss finds the leak and puts the arms dealer out of play.
Unfortunately, she hasn't even unpacked a suitcase before her newly-inherited dog digs up a human bone in her backyard. Thrust into the middle of a bayou murder mystery, Fortune teams up with a couple of seemingly-sweet old ladies whose looks completely belie their hold on the little town. To top things off, the handsome local deputy is asking her too many questions. If she's not careful, this investigation may blow her cover and get her killed.
Armed with her considerable skills and a group of old ladies referred to by locals as The Geritol Mafia, Fortune has no choice but to solve the murder before it's too late.
Comment: I knew about this book on one of the message forums I belong to. At the time the book was available for free in its kindle format on Amazon and I decided to get it, despite the real annoyance of reading on the PC - because my e reader isn't a kindle.
Still, it was free and I decided to read it as one of the people who recommended it to me liked it a lot.
By the way, it's still free at this moment.
This is the story of Fortune, a CIA agent that needs to hide because she did something that uncovered her identity to a dangerous man who will want to kill her. She is basically deported to Sinful, Louisiana where she is supposed to stay hidden, and out of notice. She has a fake identity and needs to stay out of problem until the man after her is caught or killed.
However, things aren't as simple and quiet in small town Sinful and Fortune gets herself in the middle of a murder investigation, she attracts problems everywhere and needs to deal with two old ladies that are more trouble than peacefulness. But what is really happening in such a small town?
Before anything else, this book is meant to be funny. To present a far-fetched plot and a funny/silly development based on some clichés about both CIA agents and small town pace. I get this. I understand the purpose and the techniques used to make it so.
But I don't know how to explain it but this book didn't sound funny at all to me. It just seemed silly and ridiculous.
I mean, I can understand why it's described as funny but I didn't think so.
I don't know if it's me, if it's my state of mind that isn't wired for funny books these days, if the humor used didn't reach me or if I'm just not in the mood, or if it's more an acquired taste than free-for-all, but the truth is, I did not find it funny.
I just couldn't go past the ridiculousness of things nor the lack of personal development for the main characters. Because this book hits on many clichés and doesn't really aim for evolution, change, growth. Ok, maybe this isn't the goal here, but I still wanted it.
I think this was too aloof and pointless for me.
The characters are meant to act funny but I didn't think so. I just can't explain why my brain couldn't find this funny. Something about it put me off.
The characters are meant to exaggerate the usual things we know about the types of people they meant to represent, thus the clichés. The old ladies should be quiet and fragile but they act so stupid and the final explanation didn't convince me.
Fortune, the main character, gets herself in all kinds of silly situations to emphasize her training as CIA office vs the challenges of rural Louisiana, but frankly, the whole thing sounded stupid. I know, I know there's the intention to bear in mind, but I needed something more, I needed more seriousness, more character growth, more explanations and better plot devices. I don't know, it just didn't work.
The plot was also silly, despite simple. I don't know if it was intended like that or if it's another thing I need to fault in my own taste, but the plot seemed rushed and too indifferent to matter.
All in all, this wasn't the experience I imagined I'd have by reading this book. There are many books that are labeled funny and they actually are so and many aren't described that way but end up being funny. But apparently my taste isn't up to it at this point of my reading habits because recently I tend not to find funny books so. Or maybe what I think is funny isn't and vice versa.
Anyway it is, this didn't work for me and all aspects, plot, characters, writing and tone weren't up to my taste and unfortunately I can't pretend I liked it, so...
Grade: 3/10
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