Review by Booklist Review
The seventh installment of the Odelia Grey series finds the plus-size amateur sleuth fed up with her paralegal job. Abrasive partner Erica leaves her three-year-old niece with Odelia for several days. Another partner asks Odelia to look into Erica's activities and suggests that Odelia's job is dependent upon her efforts. Odelia finds Erica's sister, Connie, the child's mother, dead. The police become suspicious of Odelia's involvement. As she uncovers more secrets about her colleagues and grows closer to the child, Odelia questions her life choices. Her personal reflections are even more engaging than the mystery, which is, at times, a bit convoluted. But Jaffarian is a skilled writer who is able to make extreme situations seem plausible and minor characters multidimensional. This character-rich series will appeal especially to readers of G. A. McKevett.--Alessio, Amy Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Odelia Grey resents her arrogant new boss, Erica Mayfield, sticking her with a weekend babysitting job in Jaffarian's enormously entertaining seventh cozy featuring the plus-size Southern California paralegal (after 2011's Twice as Dead). But drudgery turns to delight as Odelia and her wheelchair-bound hubby, Greg Stevens, fall head-over-heels for Erica's three-year-old niece, Lily, whose mother, Connie Holt, dumped the girl on Erica, then disappeared. When Erica vanishes, Odelia ends up doing some snooping in Erica's house, where she discovers Connie's body lying in a pool of blood. That a fiery auto crash took out Lily's dad suggests that the Holt family harbors a dangerous secret. Odelia must not only find a killer but also hold on to her job at her law firm, which is laying off people after merging with another firm. Despite the ho-hum title, this entry offers tight plotting, first-class humor, and vivid descriptions. Agent: Whitney Lee. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Paralegal Odelia Grey (Twice as Dead, 2011, etc.) lands in hot water when her shaky law firm merges with another struggling firm. When the economy threw a curve at Wallace, Boer, Brown Yates (known affectionately to its employees as "Woobie"), a merger with Hamlin-Hawke seemed just the ticket to keeping both law firms afloat. Merging staffs means cutting jobs, however, and soon layoffs are the order of the day. After 20 years at Woobie, Odelia sees a target on her back. Her snotty new boss, Erica Mayfield, gives her practically no work, shunting all the billable hours to Mark Baker, the paralegal Erica brought with her from Hamlin. Worse yet, she puts Odelia on Sesame Street duty, leaving her three-year-old niece, Lily Holt, coloring in Odelia's office day after day. When Lily arrives one day with a suitcase, Odelia puts her foot down, only to find that Erica's disappeared. Left no choice, Odelia takes the preschooler home, where she charms Odelia's husband, Greg, her best friend, Zee Washington, and Zee's lawyer husband, Seth. But a midnight foray to Erica's house ends when Odelia discovers the dead body of Lily's mother, Connie, and the paralegal needs legal help herself. Seth gets Odelia out of the slammer, but she realizes it's only a matter of time before whoever killed Connie comes after her daughter. So she takes time off from her job to track down Connie's killer, wondering all the while whether she'll have a job to come back to. Despite Jaffarian's flirtations with vampires and ghosts, her original series is still her best. Odelia takes no nonsense from anyone and stops at nothing to give the bad guys what they deserve.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
