Novice sleuths Jill, Rey and Linda stumbled and bumbled their way through The Connecticut Corpse Caper with winning results. That success prompted the trio to become bona-fide detectives. The first official assignment for the owners of the Triple Threat Investigation Agency: discover the dirty little secret of an elderly millionaire’s pretty, young wife. This sounds easy enough—until the wife is … is found dead along a Pacific shoreline. One murder evolves into several, with any one of a cornucopia of curious persons being the potential killer. Dealers, informants, and the seedy world of drugs enter the paradisiacal picture. This is a perfect opportunity to hone detecting skills and prove the newfound Hawaiian-based agency is a viable venture. Can the trio unravel the intriguing twists . . . before the twists ravel them?
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Last year, I read the first book, The Connecticut Corpse Caper, in the Triple Threat Mystery series by Tyler Colins. Her second book, Can You Hula Luke Hilo Hattie?, is even better. Colins is one talented author who can weave a complex plot and help readers fully visualize a setting.
In this caper, our three heroines have formed a private eye agency in Hawaii. They’d solved the murders in the first book as regular citizens, so why not make it a full-time job? It was too much work in California or Connecticut to get their licenses, so Hawaii became the new home. Great idea! Fun backdrop. Hilarious characters. First, they need to bring home a runaway, hooked-on-ice teen. Second, they need to prove a man’s wife is cheating. Unfortunately, it isn’t your typical case, and when the wife turns up dead, the mystery is gonna be way more complex than our heroines thought.
Colins has created a bevy of intense and charming characters. I love ‘Cash’ who seems like a very cool dreamboat. Each time I got to know a new character, they end up getting killed off! Maybe it won’t happen this time…. but like in her first book, the body count keeps rising. It’s a fun way to keep readers on our toes. My favorite aspect of the author’s writing style is her descriptions, whether of people or settings. It’s way more than you’d normally see in a book, but it fits very well. I have a beautifully clear picture of who’s talking or moving about the book. I find myself drawn to the action, too, but it’s a very complex plot to keep focused on.
I also see strength in transitions between scenes. It’s rarely over-simplified or brash. It ends in the right place, and I roll into the next scene without worrying what happened in between. I also find the dialog to be rather strong… quick puns, not wordy, direct but full of imagery and thought. I can’t wait to see what third adventure the ladies find themselves embroiled in… no matter what the plot is, I’m sure it will create loads of fun and memories. Great job, Ms. Colins!
private-investigators, Hawaii, murder-investigation, punny, snarky, friendship, laugh-out-loud
The first body was the object of their investigation.
Three friends decided to be private investigators in Hawaii despite having no licenses, residence, or anything else that you would expect. Their first client is a very wealthy man who wants to divorce his current wife without any excess cost by proving that she is cheating on him. But she is the first body! It’s a very punny story full of snarks and Hawaiian trivia. Fast paced and twisty, it moves along much quicker than I expected. Loved it!
Cindy Piller is the highly expressive narrator who adds to the general hilarity.
I won this audiobook in a giveaway!
This review is for the audio book.
This is the first book by this author that I have read or listened to but I will be keeping an eye out for more books in the series because I enjoyed it. The author describes the setting very well and with help from tv shows it is very easy to picture the island despite never have been there. It was the characters that made it fun though, from the recognized weather girl to the b list movie star, each had there own quirks to bring to the table and get the fledgling detective agency off the ground. The mystery was good and took lots of twists with each body that dropped.
A millionaire hires the triple threat investigation agency to find evidence of his wife cheating on him. Things seem off with there knew client as he already know exactly where his wife is going to be at any given time but he is there first paying client. How hard can it be to follow a woman from charity events to expensive restaurants to the gym? It proves very hard when they stumble over her dead body. The husband still wants the three friends to find out the secret his wife was keeping and they dig deeper into the drug world. It seems miss innocent wasn’t that innocent. Then the problem really start and witnesses start dropping before they can question them. Is someone cleaning up lose ends? Or has a killer got there own secret to keep hidden. With a killer on the lose, an ugly guru threatening them and a mystery man following Jill can she, Rey and Linda get to the bottom of there first case or will it prove to much for the trio.
I liked the narrator and thought she did a good job bringing emotion and excitement to the story.