Barb's Book Reviews: Review of "Wicked Business: A Lizzy and Diesel Comic Thriller" by Janet Evanovich

Monday, November 6, 2017

Review of "Wicked Business: A Lizzy and Diesel Comic Thriller" by Janet Evanovich

In this 2nd book in the 'Lizzy and Diesel' series, the duo are hunting for the magic Luxuria stone. The book can be read as a standalone.

****

In the Lizzy and Diesel books, the main characters have special abilities that they use to search for stones infused with dark magic. In this book Lizzy and Diesel are in a race against Diesel's no-good cousin Gerwulf to find the Luxuria Stone, which induces lust.

Gerwulf's goal is to collect all the magic stones, which would apparently give him great power. And Diesel's job (with Lizzy's help) is to stop Gerwulf from amassing the stones.

As the story opens Gilbert Reedy, a Harvard English Professor, has been killed and Gerwulf has Reedy's book of sonnets, known to contain information about the Luxuria Stone.

In the thin plot Lizzy and Diesel, who have obtained the key to the sonnet book, run all over the greater Boston area searching for clues that will lead to the stone. Hard on their heels are Gerwulf and his henchman Hatchet, who dresses in medieval garb and brandishes a sword.

The characters, though mildly amusing, are not very well developed. Lizzy is a culinary school graduate who bakes cupcakes, bread, and meat pies for the bakery that employs her. Diesel is a part-time bounty hunter with a pet monkey, Carl, and a very hot body. However, Lizzy and Diesel can't act on any physical attraction between them because this will lead to the loss of someone's special abilities - so there's always sexual tension.

Other characters are even less developed. Gerwulf looks like a sexy vampire.

Lizzy works with two women, bakery owner Clara and co-worker Gloria - who can detect clues invisible to others. And then there's Anarchy, a mysterious woman who also wants the stone. And so on. To me, the most fun characters are Carl the monkey and Hatchet the swordsman - who actually made me laugh out loud.

The plot of the book is not compelling and I didn't much enjoy the story. And in the end, nothing much had happened. In the future I'll probably stick to the Stephanie Plum books and skip the Lizzy and Diesel series.

Rating: 2.5 stars

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Barb's Book Reviews

Monday, November 6, 2017

Review of "Wicked Business: A Lizzy and Diesel Comic Thriller" by Janet Evanovich

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