Fast Women

When a down-on-her-luck divorcée meets a determined-to-dominate detective, they find out that falling in love can be murder...

Nell Dysart's in trouble. Weighed down by an inexplicable divorce and a loss of appetite for everything, Nell is sleepwalking through life until her best friend finagles a job for her with a shabby little detective agency that has lots of potential and a boss who looks easy to manage.

Gabe McKenna isn't doing too well, either. His detective agency is wasting time on a blackmail case, his partner has decided he hates watching cheating spouses for money, and his ex-wife has just dumped him...again. The only thing that's going his way is that his new secretary looks efficient, boring, and biddable.

But looks can be deceiving and soon Nell and Gabe are squaring off over embezzlement, business cards, vandalism, dog-napping, blackmail, Chinese food, unprofessional sex, and really ugly office furniture, all of which turn out to be the least of their problems. Because soon, somebody starts killing people. And shortly after that, they start falling in love...

You can never go wrong with a book by Jennifer Crusie, in my opinion. The stories are entertaining, they're fast paced and funny. The characters are diverse and real. And the chemistry between the hero and heroine is never lacking.

And Fast Women did not disappoint. This book was a one sitting read. You know the type, you lose yourself reading it, you forget the time. I really enjoyed reading it. The characters were interesting and different from each other. I thought the way that Nell tried to manipulate Gabe into doing things was hilarious, and Gabe's reluctance to change of any kind was funny, he reminded me of my husband - he doesn't care for change either.

I loved the mystery part of the book. Although I found the freezer part of the book a little disgusting and just wrong, I thought that it brought the ugliness of murder to a new light. I was completely surprised on the who was behind the murders.

I think my favorite aspect of the story was the way the author showed us the unraveling of a marriage and emotional impact that the character(s) went through. It felt real and heart wrenching.

Fast Women by Jennifer Crusie (4.5/5) Contemporary Romance; Published: St. Martin's Paperbacks (6/2004); 2009 100 + Reading Challenge (86);