by Cynthia Chow

Details on how to enter to win a copy of Double Strike at the end of this review, along with a link to purchase the book where a portion goes to help support KRL.

After three years as secret security at the Bellissimo Resort and Casino, Davis Way is accustomed to handling daily chaotic crises that often have her don wigs, contact lenses, and inappropriate outfits. This is in addition to her secondary job as the lookalike stand-in for Bianca Casimiro Sanders, the owner’s wife. Bianca delegates unappealing duties to Davis, such as boring media events, charity dinners, and meetings with her son’s school board. Davis is less prepared for her own impending wedding to attorney Bradley Cole. The situation resolves itself when the ceremony is cancelled due to Bianca’s dog pool-related construction fire. The fact that Davis just learned that she is still married to her ex-ex-husband (she made the same mistake twice) is a somewhat more alarming.

While Davis and her former corrections officer partner Fantasy are old hands at working undercover within the Bellissimo to bust scams, employee theft, and con artists, the invasion by the Strike It Rich Sweepstakes marketing team is a force unlike anything they’ve ever encountered. The former staffers of a Las Vegas casino have proposed a casino-within-a-casino event, utilizing a social media blitz that has Davis baffled. Unfortunate, considering that her boss, Jeremy “No Hair” Coven has assigned Davis to be the assistant to hipster Social Media Director “Hashtag” Elspeth Raiffe. Between attempts to discover what is behind the Strike It Rich Sweepstakes’ secrecy, Instagrams, Tweets, and Vining, it’s no surprise walking down the aisle after attaining an actual divorce decree is problematic.

This is a delightful and hilarious novel that barely allows the reader to breathe amidst all of chaos and catastrophes Davis juggles. The author balances out the many plots. While Davis seems to be a magnet for disaster, it is not due to lack of skills or intelligence. From an Alabama town of less than four hundred (a population fewer than the new faces Davis encounters each month at the Bellissimo), Davis assigns possibly offensive nicknames to everyone rather than attempting to remember their names. Even with the fires, job firings, two not-quite-husbands, and multiple makeovers, the author reveals a layer of serious and emotional complexity when it comes to Davis’s insecurity about marriage. This novel shines with its resilient and acerbic heroine. The mystery is at its strongest when it highlights and exposes the details behind gambling, casinos, and domination of social media. This is an entertaining third entry in the Davis Way Crime Caper mystery series.

To enter to win a copy of Double Strike, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “Strike,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen November 22, 2014. U.S. residents only. If entering via email please include your mailing address, and if via comment please include your email address.

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Click on this link to purchase this book & a portion goes to help support KRL!

Cynthia Chow is the branch manager of Kaneohe Public Library on the island of Oahu. She balances a librarian lifestyle of cardigans and hair buns with a passion for motorcycle riding and regrettable tattoos (sorry, Mom).