Kathleen Bacus, Calamity Jayne

Calamity Jayne

Kathleen Bacus

Love Spell, Jan 2006, $5.99, 352 pp.

ISBN: 0505526654

Anyone who lives in or near Granville, Iowa knows that the centerfold for Murphy's Law is Tressa "Calamity" Jayne Turner, who seems to land in the fire time after time. However, this time Calamity Jayne manages to make even Murphy look like an optimist with her latest bonehead blunder. Tired after working the late shift at Bargain City, Tressa takes a car that looks like hers, but is not hers. On the drive home on a remote road she has a flat. She opens the trunk to pull out the spare only to find the corpse of the town's drug-smuggling attorney and an envelope containing plenty of cash.

Stunned Jane runs off to find Ranger Rick, but by the time they return to where she left the vehicle, the car with of course its body and loot is gone. Neither Rick nor anyone else believes Jane's story; that is no one except the killer who believes she concocted a story to abscond with the money and whoever has the cash. The murderer wants his loot returned immediately to him or there will be one less dumb blond living in Iowa.

CALAMITY JANE is an amusing chick lit investigative tale with the emphasis on the heroine as the poster-child for dumb blond jokes. The dialogue between Rick and Jane is often amusing especially when she tries to persuade him that she is telling him the truth while he figures she is just doing one more stupid thing. Kathleen Bacus provides a lighthearted romp that stars simply a likable bad dumb blond.

Harriet Klausner