What's a Girl Gotta Do? by Sparkle Hayter

Open Road Integrated Media

 

A Robin Hudson Mystery

From the cover:

Meet Robin Hudson. Dumped by her husband, she’s been demoted to third-string reporter at New York’s All News Network. Her downstairs neighbor thinks she’s a hooker. Louise Bryant, her finicky cat, refuses to chow down on anything but stir-fry. Now Robin’s being blackmailed by a late-night caller who knows her childhood nickname and other personal stuff, like whom she gave her virginity to. What could be worse?

 

Being the prime suspect in the bludgeoning death of her mystery caller—that’s what. In life, he was a PI who had the skinny on everyone. Now, while Robin is undercover investigating a suspicious sperm bank, she must also find the killer and clear her name. In her downtime, she’s amusing herself with her hot new boy toy, who may not be Mr. Right but could be Mr. Close Enough. When someone else is murdered, Robin races to break the story before she makes headlines again—as the next victim.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book written by Canadian author Sparkle Hayter, a journalist who has worked for CNN and Global Television, amongst others.   The author's inside knowledge of television journalism adds to the plot and the telling of the story.  This knowledge creates an air of realism in an otherwise funny, quirky tale. 

 

Robin Hudson is a character that is hard not to like.  She doesn't know when to keep her mouth shut and manners and good housekeeping are simply foreign to her nature.  She is strong, salty, independent and just a little horny.  I love how the story is told in Robin's voice as it is always intriguing to be inside someone else's head. 

 

My one quibble with the book is near the start.  Robin describes and interacts with numerous characters and not all of these characters are essential to the story.  It is much like standing around the water cooler getting the skinny on your co-workers on a Monday morning.  This is a small quibble and will not deter me from reading the other five Robin Hudson novels.

 

Reading about the author has led me to a category of books I had not heard of before - Tart Noir.  This is a line of reading I intend to pursue and will make room for on my bookshelves right beside the Stephanie Plum novels. 

 

The 14th Protocol by Nathan Goodman

Kindle Edition

One of the reasons I decided to read the 14^th Protocol was because of the number of favorable reviews I had seen.  Unfortunately, I didn’t come to the same conclusion as a number of other readers. 

The book is usually referred to as a fast-paced Techno thriller and I agree it is definitely that.  The basic story is simply that after numerous terrorist attacks, the American people are on edge not knowing where the next attack will happen; only that it will happen and we need the FBI to save the day.  The plot is a slightly exaggerated reflection of the times we live in and covers to some degree false flags, but remains believable. 

What I liked:

      -  The main characters are sympathetic and likeable.

      -  The plot was believable and fairly fast paced.

      -  There are some interesting plot twists.

      -  The cliff hanger ending.

What I didn’t like:

      -      Too many incidental characters.  There were times I felt they were there to up the word count and nothing else.
     -        Awkwardly worded phrases.  There were a number of places I had to reread a sentence two, or three times to be clear on the meaning. 
     -        Though fast paced, the book would have benefited from being somewhat shorter.  This would have tightened the plot and increased the pace and tension.
     -     Not finding out until half-way through who the main character actually is.
     -     Having to order the postquel (no charge) from the author in order to tie up all the loose ends.  An original idea yes, but not sure I am a fan. 

Overall an okay read that would have benefited from better editing.