Sometimes phrases just jump out at me while I am reading reviews.
I recently saw a character referred to as “a combination of Uma Thurman and Jennifer Garner.”
Kristin Van Dijk is a 17-year-old nomad traveling the road of life with her father. When he is murdered in a pool hall by a biker gang and she is beaten and raped and left for dead after the building is torched, she sets out to avenge her father and herself in a Kill-Billesque manner that is, interestingly enough, described in another review as “a made for the movies page turner.”
The book is Baby Shark by Robert Fate.
The sequel, Baby Shark’s Beaumont Blues, was recently released and received a starred review and a “highly recommended” from Library Journal. We find Kristin established in the P.I. business and searching for a kidnapped teen oil-heiress.
A few reviews later there was a character described as “part Nancy Drew, part Dirty Harry.”
Isabel “Izzy” Spellman is a 28-year-old P.I. with her dysfunctional family’s firm. When her 14-year-old sister goes missing the family must work together to find her.
The book is The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz. Publishers Weekly suggests that we “Stay tuned as a dynamic new series unfolds.” What can the future hold for a Get Smart re-runs junkie consistently attracted to the wrong sort of men? Perhaps television.
Oh, and by the way, Rhys Bowen, author of the popular Evan Evans and Molly Murphy series, will be trotting out a new character this summer, Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie, in her first adventure entitled Her Royal Spyness. Her Ladyship is described as "Bridget Jones meets Maisie Dobbs" in a setting "with echoes of Gosford Park and Snobs."
Top that!
