Unemployed ex-party girl Angela Cray is back living with her no-nonsense mother in Phoenix. After coming within air-kissing distance of a felony charge, Angela is determined to make something of her life. When a sympathetic neighbor offers her work, Angela jumps at the opportunity. She figures it won’t be hard to track down a missing fianc last seen with two Lady Gaga lookalikes. After all, one … one of her superpowers is finding badly behaved men.
But the trail of the runaway groom has more twists than a bride’s updo. And when Angela uncovers secrets that people will kill to keep hidden, she has to decide the price she’s willing to pay for success.
Angela will need to call upon all her charm and cunning–and the deities of her ancient Samoan ancestors–to make sure this professional growth opportunity doesn’t kill her first.
ANGELA CRAY GETS REAL was a finalist for a Freddie Award for Writing Excellence from the Florida Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America.
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Not often you find a crime fighter on a bicycle, but Angela Cray, a newly.minted wanna-be detective does just that. Often calling on the gods of her Pacific Islander mother for help, she pedals her way past a boyfriend straight into a big-time drug bust. Definitely on the road to a promising career ( and a promising series!)
Needing a hot weather distraction, this one was fun for me.
It was a fast moving “find the lost person story” made more enjoyable by the quirky and interesting main character.
I loved Angela Cray! She’s car-less, joblees, option-less–but her nails are perfect, her makeup just right, and she’s a people oerson.! So taking on an investigating job for an intimidating attorney is the obvious thing to do, right? On a bicycle, she tackles the mystery of the disappeared fiancé, and falls into a whole lot more than she dreamed of. It’s funny, faced-paced, and you want her to be successful. Hope there’s more of Angela Cray!
Fun, fresh, lively— and a great eccentric anti-hero bumbling through life. And of course stumbling into bad guys.
A fun romp. Young protagonist.
Angela Cray gets Real is the first book in Dana Carr’s Angela Cray series is a humorous story which gives the reader a sense that future books will be as enjoyable. Although this book is not the usual cozy mystery that I love reading it rather a deeper mystery in which the dangers are interwoven generously with laugh out loud humor. This definitely was a funny story and kept me interested to very end. As the clues in the investigation changed, I started guessing towards the end and was surprised by the outcome.
This is a great book and well worth the read and I highly recommend this book to other readers and hope to read additional books in this series.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book.
I get SO TIRED of references to Stephanie Plum in book blurbs to try to make me buy the book when the only similarity is say, they both live in New Jersey. That is not the case with this book. Fun. Page turner. Great spirited character. And no NOT set in Jersey. Can’t wait for more in this series
Angela Cray is a fun character who falls into a job as a detective when her other career (day spa worker) goes away after her ex tries to frame her in a Botox scheme (funnier than it seems)
Angela is forced to put on her big girl pants (and crawl out of her white comforter cocoon) and get to work to find a missing fiancee.
Lots of fun.
I found this book to be a little bit slow — ended up skipping a chapter or two to get to the end
It was ok and kind of amusing.
a lot is going on in her head. It becomes more interesting as it goes along. But is somewhat repetitive.
Fun reading
Not as good as I thought it would be
Angela is very likable however, there were far too many errors in text. Obviously no one proofread it. I will definitely read another Angela Cray book again.
This book was okay, but I wouldn’t read others in the series. I couldn’t warm up to the characters.
I liked the character at first, but it just got to be too much of a stretch that everywhere she need to go to investigate for over the first half the book, she went on a bicycle. In the heat. When she was given a car, she didn’t seem to have to put gas in it, or buy insurance. Just didn’t come up. She ‘ran into’ too many people she was looking for. I wanted a light summer read, but I had a hard time finishing the book. A bit too unrealistic.
Angela is a ditz. And, she is no Stephanie. About the only thing she has going for her is incompetence. She gets into stupid situations and does dumb things over and over. Kind of cute, but won’t be reading anymore of these.
It was kinda cute, too similar to Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum. However, I still remember reading “One For the Money” and rereading it. This is not that caliber of a book. The author has some ability and should develop it.
Sue Grafton she is not.