What the Lady Wants by Jennifer Crusie

Before I started this I only had four more Jennifer Crusie books to read, and I have to say that if they are all as quick to read and as fun, then I should be done with them by next week.

Mae Belle Sullivan is a heiress who has no money. Mitch Peatwick is a PI, but he's not really, Mae Belle's uncle is a murder victim who appears to have died of natural causes and the rest of her family is either crazy or crooked.

Written as a spoof to Sam Spade type detective novels, Mitch had decided a year earlier that he could earn a living as a PI. Having also taken a substantial bet that he could do so, he only had a few days left to go on his bet. After a year of divorce work, he is somewhat jaded and distrusting of everyone, so when Mae Belle Sullivan walks into his office asking him to find the diary of her dead uncle he already knows that she is lying to him.

Mae Belle was after a dumb detective who she could get to spread rumours about her Uncle Armand's death whilst she tried to figure out what was going on with him. Instead she got Mitch who wouldn't do what she asked, and who she was beginning to feel very attracted to. Unlike some of Crusie's heroes, Mitch didn't do a great deal for me, but that's okay.

Whilst Mae Belle's family were all Mafia types, including her cousin Carlo who really wanted to be with her, they were all pretty cliched, but in a completely over the top, fun kind of way. In fact it is probably fair to say that the whole novel was written in a tongue in cheek fashion, with over the top characters, but for me that is refreshing in itself in a way. This was not a book pretending to be anything more than a fun, romantic story, with screwball characters.

Overall, this was a fun novel, with a cute couple at it's centre. I only figured out after I read it that Nick and Tess from Strange Bedpersons were also in this novel, so I guess I will read that one next.

Rating 4/5