You are bound to have problems when two extremely stubborn people get together. When they start working together sparks are bound to fly. This is exactly what you get in Fast Women.
Nell Dysart has a lot of problems, the main ones being her divorce, her current eating disorder and the fact that she appears to have a sleepwalking problem. However, matters appear to be changing for the better when she manages to get a job with a small detective agency. The fact that her boss looks like someone who is easy to manage is an added bonus.
In Gabe McKenna, her attractive boss believes he has found himself the perfect secretary. Someone who looks competent, unexciting and compliant. How wrong can you get! Sparks begin to fly from the moment they begin to work with each other. However, Nell and Gabe soon have other things to worry about apart from their stormy relationship. They soon find themselves knee deep in embezzlement, vandalism, dognapping and blackmail amongst other things. All of which they realise is the least of their problems when someone starts killing people. The fact that they are both trying to fight the attraction they feel towards one another makes matters worse. Gabe and Nell as well as the other characters in the book are flawed but this does not stop them from being genuinely nice people. In fact at times they came across as being too nice and were in danger of becoming goody two-shoes. Cruise manages to avoid this by also giving the two main characters at times a rather ruthless streak.
Fast Women is one of those books that make you laugh as you read it. I am not
sure whether Fast Women is actually a good title for this book. Not that there
is anything wrong with the book, in fact Fast Women reminded me a bit of the
first couple of Stephanie Plum books as well as the Francesca Vierling series
by Elaine Viets. I think a better title would have been Smart Women. On first
reading this book you will get the feeling that the mystery element in this
book takes second place. Nothing can be further from the truth. Jennifer Cruise
has managed to weave an excellent mystery together with a rather funny novel.
Fast Women is not a book to be taken seriously, but certainly the type you should
be reading if you are looking for a light-hearted book with a mystery element
in it. After reading Welcome to Temptation by the same author last year, I shall
certainly be keeping an eye out for her other books. Fast Women is an entertaining
book that is certainly worth reading if you want something that is light-hearted
and not too strenuous.
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Ayo Onatade