Lethal

From Publishers Weekly What's a wealthy, gorgeous woman to do when she has a hunky, workaholic detective boyfriend, an overactive sense of good Samaritanism and too much time on her hands? Get in trouble, of course, and Cally Wilde does just that at the start of this improbable read. Set in Los Angeles-and populated by the kind of effortlessly rich, charismatic people who make Jeff Bezos look like an underachiever-the book opens with Cally saving a pretty Japanese woman named Aya from an abusive man. Cally gets grazed by a bullet in the process, but that doesn't stop her from befriending Aya or from coming to her rescue when her attacker returns. Before long, Cally and her colorful clique-including her well-off boyfriend, Evan; her mouthy girlfriend, Ginny; and her witless half-sister, Sabrina-are embroiled in a tangled web involving Columbian drug dealers, a possibly shady Japanese businessman and two enigmatic geishas. Reading this book is much like riding in the passenger seat of a sports car with a lead-footed driver at the helm. The momentum of the story keeps you nailed to your seat, but the ride is sometimes so chaotic that you long for solid ground. It's often not clear why Cally and her friends do what they do (e.g., shortly after deciding that they need to fake the death of one of the geishas they're protecting, Cally and Ginny go golfing), and the protagonists' innuendo-laced banter occasionally misfires. Nevertheless, this follow-up to Shattuck's Loaded is light, whirlwind entertainment for those who like the feel of the wind in their hair. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From