Dating Can Be Murder (Samantha Shaw Mystery Series) by Jennifer Apodaca

From the Publisher

A WHOLE NEW WOMAN

After her no-good husband bit into some peanut candy - and dropped dead in mid-chew - Samantha Shaw decided to start living it up (finally). She's had her breasts done (va-voom!), dyed her hair (blonde, of course), and pumped up her wardrobe (think up-to-here skirts-and barely there sweaters). Now, it's goodbye, soccer mom…and hello, sexy…

Publishers Weekly

After the sudden death of her rotten husband, Trent, southern California suburban housewife and soccer mom Samantha Shaw, the heroine of Apodaca's delightful debut cozy, seeks revenge big time. When cleaning out her husband's treasured 1964 Mustang convertible, Sam finds a bag of panties (not hers), each with a Post-it attached rating its owner's performance. Hurt and enraged, Samantha has her breasts done, dyes her hair blond and trades in her long skirts and sneakers for minis and stiletto heels. A reviewer of romance fiction and a firm believer in true love, she buys Heart Mates, a dating service, determined to make it, and romance, succeed. When a thug threatens her life and demands that she give him money, she suspects Trent was into more than extramarital sex. The thug's murder and the discovery that her condom salesman husband was also selling drugs give Sam good cause to worry for the safety of her sons and grandfather. Luckily, she can turn for help to hunky ex-cop Gabe Pulizzi. As the suspect list grows, Sam's new persona is tested in ways she never imagined at the PTA. Fast-paced and witty, this sparkling cozy offers a hair-raising climax and a believable cast of supporting characters, except for a relentless mother who's too keen on having her daughter become a realtor. In the best romance tradition, Sam dares to face the things that frighten her most. Surely one can almost hear Miss Marple saying, "You go, girl!" (May 7) Forecast: A bright, eye-catching jacket of a big heart with a male corpse on top and a bullet hole in the middle should lure both cozy and romance readers. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Outraged at discovering her condom-selling husband's infidelities, Samantha Shaw reinvents herself after his untimely death. She sells his prize car, has breast augmentation surgery, and purchases a dating service. But then bad people begin demanding money that her husband apparently skimmed as a drug runner. After someone who threatened her is killed, "Sam" reinvents herself a little more by becoming an amateur private investigator. The resultant interrogations and divagations, mostly dangerous and violent, get her in trouble with the hunky detective in charge of the case. Middle-of-the-road prose, narrative, and plot make this debut mystery an optional choice for larger collections. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Here's the recipe for postmarital bliss: smaller house, bigger tits, more jobs, scantier clothes. So when Samantha Shaw's cheating hubby Trent checks out after a peanut-allergy attack, Sam uses his insurance for a boob job. She dyes her graying hair blond and crams her newly enhanced torso into a wardrobe of skintight sweaters and thigh-high skirts that barely cover her thong underwear. Then, since her part-time job reviewing romance novels can't pay very much-in 16 chapters, she never once picks up a book-she uses the remainder of her widow's mite to purchase Heart Mates Dating Service. This shrewd business move leaves her with no money to pay the mortgage, so she sells her house and moves with her sons, T.J. and Joel, into her grandfather's three-bedroomer. Shortly afterward, all hell breaks loose: a man named Perry busts into her office and roughs her up, demanding that she tell him where her late husband stashed some drug money. She discovers a bunch of corpses, one of them desecrating her own front porch. Some of her frumpy ex-PTA buddies ask her to locate some missing home videos of themselves frolicking with their husbands. (Apparently, some soccer moms enjoy better conjugal relations than Sam did.) But the real action here centers right beneath Sam's thong. Apodaca ought to follow up her mystery debut with an actual romance novel. Then Sam could review it herself, and we'd all go home happy.

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