Last week was terrible for the PTA I run. The event coordinator for one of our biggest fundraisers of the year quit, and the event coordinator for the annual talent show also quit. By Friday, I was ready to curl up on the coach with a bottle of rosé and a book, so I drove over to the library and hit the romance section hard. My first selection — and the novel I’m reviewing here — was called Agnes and the Hitman.
This book was exactly what I needed to perk up my mood. It was funny, it was fun, and I completely forgot about the PTA.
Agnes Crandall is the food columnist “Cranky Agnes”. She and her fiancé have just bought a crumbling old mansion in South Carolina that they plan to turn into the base of operations for a catering business. But first, Agnes has to pull off the wedding of her goddaughter, or she’ll lose her new home.
You’d think baking a wedding cake, planning a wedding, and finishing up her weekly food column would be enough for Agnes to deal with…but then some random guy shows up and tries to steal her dog. With the help of her trusty frying pan, Agnes fends the dognapper off…right into a basement she didn’t know came with the house. The dognapper ends up dead, and Agnes has to add “dealing with the law” to her To Do list.
Enter Shane, the nephew of one of Agnes’ closest friends. As it turns out, there’s more than one guy after Agnes’ dog. Shane is more than capable of dealing with these would-be dognappers, given that he’s a government hitman, but then he discovers that whatever’s happening with Agnes is mixed up with a hit he’s supposed to stop at the upcoming wedding.
This book comes complete with two very likable main characters, witty dialogue, flamingos, a crazed grandmother-of-the-bride, a missing fortune, descriptions of delicious food, and an ever-growing pile of dead bodies. Oh, and a frying pan. If you’re not a fan of the tortuous circumstances used in some romance novels to keep the hero and heroine apart, then this book’s for you: Shane is a decent guy who knows Agnes is the woman for him, and he doesn’t agonize over choosing between her and his career.
The two authors who wrote this book have another novel they did together. I’m off to the library to find that one.