Smiley, Patricia: Cover Your Assets

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In this sequel to Patricia Smiley's False Profits self-employed management consultant Tucker Sinclair finds herself tracking down the murderer of an old flame, Hollywood agent Evan Brice. The problem is that Tucker's search for a killer may lead her to the door of old friend Cissy Brice, the victim's widow, who had ample reason to want to see the last of her unfaithful, drug-addicted spouse. While annoying the police with her amateur sleuthing, Tucker has to contend with memories of Cindy's perfidy ten years earlier--Cissy had an affair with Brice while he was engaged to Tucker--as well as a host of other annoyances--starlets with skeletons, malevolent bikers, her ex-husband's impending nuptials, and her mother's increasingly organic lifestyle.

Cover Your Assets is a likeable enough cozy, nicely written and sporting the occasional pleasing turn of phrase. ("I waited until she turned her back before using my hand to fan myself with the same urgency Icarus must have felt trying to get across the Aegean.") My worry, though, is that the book may not be different enough to stand out from the pack of other likeable-enough cozies, that there is nothing that distinguishes Tucker Sinclair as an unusually eccentric or otherwise compelling protagonist. Perhaps more can be done in future installments in the series with Tucker's day job, which barely figures in the storyline here. (But is management consulting a sexy or quirky enough field to add much spice?) Still, a good read that's worth your while if you're shopping for a breezy beach book.