Millie Criswell Mad About Mia

Mad About Mia

Millie Criswell

Ivy, Jan 2004, $6.99

ISBN: 0804119945

In Baltimore, Mia DeNero received her diploma from a bodyguard school after almost accidentally killing the instructor and needing her sister the lawyer to receive it. She opened the Guardian Angel Protective Services, but has no clients perhaps because no one can picture a midget like Mia keeping someone safe. True crime writer Niccolo Caruso hires Mia when he claims he is danger because he is writing a Mafia expose. To keep him safe she allows him to move into her apartment with her.

Nick is actually undercover as a member of the FBI Organized Crime Investigation Unit trying to crack a money laundering scheme. He is using Mia to get at the uncle of her brother-in-law Alfredo Graziano who claims mob connections as he frequents the restaurant beneath his bodyguard's apartment. As he and Mia become better acquainted they fall in love, but he knows that once she learns the truth she may never trust him let alone forgive him for his duplicity.

Though Mia is a dingbat, fans will appreciate this amusing romantic suspense though the intrigue appears late. The story line is humorous as Mia does nothing right even when she protects her client because the assaulter is a kid with a water gun. Still she believes in herself so much that Nick admires her spunk and dedication as much as her body. Fans of the Baltimore based series will go MAD ABOUT MIA, a lovable kook.

Harriet Klausner