MINOR SPOILERS FOR THE PLOT OF THIS BOOK IN THE REVIEW:
Maddie Faraday is cleaning out her husband’s car and discovers a pair of women’s underpants under the seat that certainly aren’t hers. This isn’t the first time he’s cheated on her, and she decides that enough is enough. Even though she knows her mother and much of their little town will be utterly scandalised if she files for divorce, she just cannot take it any more. That C.L, the cute guy she lost her virginity in high school has just appeared in town again, looking gorgeous and available just makes her wonder further about the wrong choices she feels she’s taken in life.
As Maddie contacts a lawyer (in the town over, so it’ll take longer for her snoopy mother to discover what she’s done) and starts trying to gather proof of her husband’s financial assets, she finds that not only was her husband cheating on her, he seems to have been cheating his clients and has huge amounts of cash in a safe deposit box in the bank, as well as passports for himself and their daughter, along with plane tickets to Brazil. Then her husband turns up dead, and Maddie is suddenly the main suspect in a murder case.
When Jennifer Crusie is good, she’s very good indeed. I adore Welcome to Temptation and am very fond of Bet Me, Faking It and Agnes and the Hitman. Crusie more often than not writes after a certain formula. There will be a smart-mouthed heroine, a love of food, often overbearing or controlling mothers, an adorable plot moppet and a cute, unconventional-looking dog involved in the story. The other books of hers that I’ve read don’t tend to feature married heroines, but rather single women who find their happily ever after over the course of the book, after much hijinks has ensued.
More on my blog.