Becky A. Bartness

I'm feeling wishy-washy on my ratings-- I think this one is a 3.5 star book. I clearly enjoyed it, and certainly didn't find anything wrong with it. It just didn't quite make it all the way to four stars.This was a fun read, with crazy characters that reminded my of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum, without being quite as crazy and over the top. The mystery worked well enough to carry the story, with some unexpected twists and turns along the way. There was a good mixture of progress made by thinking of what had happened already, and of the story moving along by people running/chasing/being held at gunpoint and so on.The book is worth picking up for a quick, enjoyable read.… (lisätietoja)

How to Lose a Client is the 3rd outing for Kate Williams, a lawyer who seems to be a magnet for the strange and unusual. Kate has recently gone into business for herself and opened her own defense practice in Phoenix Arizona. With no appointments for an afternoon and her construction contractor not likely to show up again any time soon, her employees convince her to take the afternoon off to get her hair done. At the stylists she runs into Tuwanda, a self styled 'Professional Ho' working for Tangerine, who rumor has it, was looking for a new defense attorney. The very next day Tangerine decides to retain Kate as her attorney. She left Kate with a thumb drive, then she disappeared, shortly before her previous lawyer is found dead, floating in the canal. Kate seems to be in the middle of something dangerous and tries to do the right thing for her client.

I found this book to be laugh out loud funny. Whenever Kate states something emphatically, you know somehow, someway she is going to be proven wrong and usually in an incredibly funny way. Tuwanda becomes her sidekick through most of the book, helping Kate search for their employer 'Tangerine'. In my opinion Tuwanda makes the book, she has the best one liners and some great insights into people. She reminded me a lot of Lulu in the Stephanie Plum books.

I really enjoyed this book and plan on reading the previous two books. It gets a little silly and it is entirely fun from beginning to end. A great cozy style mystery and certainly worth a look.… (lisätietoja)

Kate Williams is a lawyer, she used to practice in Chicago but decided to move to Arizona after two cases. She was in the transition of getting settled into her office. She already have trusted people on her team. Beth her receptionist, M.J her tattooed, seasonal haired paralegal and her cross dressing investigator, nick named as Sam. She had an unfortunate luck of hiring a shady constructor. Who seems to work only when he feels like it. Her quirky team coerced her to have a day off, and she took this as a chance to reinvent herself. She then went to Stranded only to find out that her colorist Michele was with another client. Michele then referred her to Christopher, a flamboyant gay hair stylist that gave her a Lucille Ball look. He gave her a color red confusing her choice of auburn while having a chat with Michele's client, Tuwanda who works for Tangerine, the number one pimp in the city. After the horrendous hair color incident she has to go home and wait until the next day for corrective hair color stripper and redying. An appointment was waiting for her the following day, her new client is Katherine Paar, none other than Tangerine herself. She hired Kate as her new legal representative since her lawyer decided to retire. She then gave Kate the necessary documents and then some that she needs to protect. From that moment on Kate was kidnapped, beaten up, almost died of a house fire, walked into her trashed apartment and office, cross dressers criticized her hair color and clothing choices, and been driving around in a pink mobile with a homeless guy and a professional ho dodging criminals and looking for Tangerine.

Kate's adventure was hilarious. How to Lose a Client is the third novel of Kate Williams. I wouldn't know if not for searching more Bartness books. While it is set to be as a series, this third installment feels like a stand alone, which works perfect. Plus Bartness did some recap on what cases Kate worked on before. I didn't get a hard time navigating this book. Kate is a likable character, she is not the uptight, stressed out, "I am a lawyer, get out of my way". Sometimes I forget because most of the time she was running away from the bad guys, she was incredibly patient with colorist that ruined her hair color, and she banters with criminals when she was about to get kidnapped. The sarcasm, the wit and the characters surrounding her made the whole book a laugh out loud experience. Tuwanda is my favorite. Her metaphors and surprising take on things were a never ending amusement. I love the ending too, I never had a clue on who the criminal was. it was a brilliant ending.… (lisätietoja)