Killer in High Heels

Yet another misleading title. The first book in this series, <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/204479.Spying_in_High_Heels__High_Heels___1_" title="Spying in High Heels (High Heels, #1) by Gemma Halliday" rel="noopener">Spying in High Heels</a>, made you think of spies, but first-person narrator Maddie Springer used "spying" to mean just hanging around crime scenes watching police work. In this one, you might think the title is a spoiler. There are murders here, after all. But no, I think it's just meant to be a drag queen expression, as "You look killer in high heels." And there are a lot of drag queens here, too.<br /><br />The back cover blurb on my edition has more information than the summary at the top of this Goodreads page, so with your indulgence I'll quote some of the blurb:<blockquote>Maddie straps on her stilettos and, along with her trigger-happy best friend, makes tracks for Sin City in search of her MIA dad.<br /><br />Maddie hits the jackpot, all right. She finds not only her dad, but also a handful of aging drag queens, an organized crime ring smuggling fake Prada pumps, and one relentless killer. Plus, it seems the LAPD's sexiest cop is doing a little Vegas moonlighting of his own. </blockquote>Maddie is still clearly not a detective, and once again she's surprised by the solution to the mystery, along with numerous nasty surprises along the way. Ramirez the real detective, who's Maddie's intense romantic interest, was fairly believable at home in Los Angeles, but he loses credibility for me in Las Vegas. That's where Maddie, Dana, and Marco have gone to look for Maddie's long-lost father, and I had a hard time believing how easy their quest was, getting to the right place at the right time for murder No. 1.<br /><br />The story wanders between funny and silly most of the time, with a few life-or-death moments of course, and it was fairly enjoyable. But as you can probably tell, I didn't relate to the main characters as well this time. It's only because I read the first book that I knew Maddie was pretty smart--she did well in a school of fashion design and she landed a job designing luxury shoes for tiny children. I'm afraid if this is the first book you read in the series, Maddie will just be a ditzy blonde all the way through it--impetuous and eager, but not one to think too clearly.<br /><br />And what's with Maddie and Ramirez (apart from how he could possibly be there doing what he's doing, no spoiler here)? They have the hots for each other. But this is a novel of comic foreplay interruptus, very graphic on the foreplay, too repetitive on the interruptions, and when they're finally safe from outsiders popping in on them, Maddie breaks it off. Why? <input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="55529818-5120-453e-a6ee-82b5f6df55eb" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="55529818-5120-453e-a6ee-82b5f6df55eb">Because she doesn't have the right underwear on and she hasn't shaved her legs. I kid you not.</label> If you opened that spoiler tag, you may agree with me that Maddie's self-image gets in the way of true love. Sigh. And yuck.<br /><br />The gangsters were pretty much standard issue, ripe for ethnic humor delivered by Marco ("Italian-<i>American</i>!"), but the night club one of them ran featured drag queens who were a lot of fun (see blurb above), and there was fairly good reason (again, no spoilers) for Maddie to believe her father was in danger from the criminal element (and was he part of it? after all, he abandoned Maddie when she was three years old, didn't he?). So there are more positives to this tale than might appear from my little grumbles.<br /><br />Enjoyable enough for three stars, I guess.

מאדי ספרינגר, הפשניסטית הבלונדינית חוזרת והפעם אחרי 6 שבועות שבהם לא התראת עם הבלש רמירז, היא נוסעת במשימת הצלה לאביה בווגאס.<br /><br />ישנם קטעים משעשעים ביותר בספר במיוחד קטעים שקשורים לשוקר שהחברה של מאדי קונה. בנוסף הספר קולח. אבל העלילה כל כך מופרכת והזויה שזה פשוט מצחיק ומגוחך. נהנתי מהגיחוך אבל אם מחפשים בלש רציני הספרים של מאדי ספרינגר הם לא הכתובת.

WARNING: Spoilers included. <br /><br />Ok, not really sure how I want to rate this one. On one hand, the writing is witty and enjoyable to read. However, the story-line is way beyond far-fetched and I am finding it even harder to like Maddie, the heroine of the series.<br /><br />Let’s start with the good. The book is a light and quick read. The humorous style makes it really fun. The author has a way with words, especially tying in the shoe theme. I particularly like the line when Maddie fears a mobster may fit her with “cement sling backs.” There is also good chemistry between Maddie and Ramirez, which is important if you are going to have a romantic story line.<br /><br />The problem is that in order to maintain the enjoyment, I really have to turn my brain off while reading. Once reality sets in, I start to feel a little cheated. <br /><br />For example, the story line has so many unrealistic details, that they become more and more difficult to overlook. Local police officers to do NOT take on long-term undercover assignments in another state to bring down mob bosses. And, we are supposed to believe that in six weeks this undercover cop is good enough to infiltrate a mob gang this closely, and yet he continually jeopardizes his assignment by making out with Maddie in proximity to said mob gang. Oh, and the mobsters are running a drag club and never seem to notice conspicuous cars. I could go on.<br /><br />Then, there are the “gaps” in the story where it contradicts itself. It opens with Maddie dealing with Ramirez having ZERO contact for 6 weeks. He apparently is still very interested but makes NO ATTEMPT to let her know he is on assignment? And then, she is just going to forgive and forget like he had only been absent for a week? Also, there is a scene at the end where she introduces her mom to Ramirez. In the first book, Ramirez had been at her mother’s wedding and met her family.<br /><br />As for Maddie herself, I am finding it increasingly difficult to like her. First of all, she is a habitual liar. She is constantly making promises which she has no intention of keeping. She whines about her job and yet she makes no effort to improve her situation. She acts without logic and reasoning in almost all scenarios. She never stops to consider the danger in which she kept placing herself, but more importantly, her friends and family. This indicates a very self-centered and shallow personality.<br /><br />Finally, at the end of book two, shouldn’t we be beyond intense physical chemistry between Maddie and Ramirez? At some point, shouldn’t they find some emotional common ground beyond arguing or making out? <br /><br />I bought a 5-book collection of this series on impulse, so I feel a bit compelled to continue. The humor DOES make up for a lot. We’ll see how I feel after the 3rd book in the series.<br />

Ah the high heels series. This is fast becoming my unwind guilty pleasure reading series for when I just need some total chill out time. No, this isn’t Jane Eyre or some other beautiful timeless classic, nor does it pretend to be. With lines like:<br /><br />Wanna come with?" Does a bear go poo poo in the woods? "I'm there."<br /><br />This book fully has me sold in the chick lit comedic value category. Sure it’s a bit cheesy, and sure there are several cringe worthy moments, but as far as I’m concerned that’s all part of the charm. Would I pick this up if I was in the mood for an intellectual book? Or a thriller that has me on the edge of my seat with every page? Nope. But for an evening after work with a glass of rosé and a need for a laugh, this is my pick hands down. <br /><br />So why the 4 stars not 5? The story follows Maddie’s continued dramatic life journey as she falls straight from one mystery involving her boyfriend into another involving her long lost father... I mean how unlucky does a girl have to be? Because she is decidedly insane she again decides to (again) take on her own investigation in direct opposition to her undercover agent boyfriends instructions...because of course. Honestly I can’t justify giving it the same rating as other books with more solid story telling and where the romantic scenes don’t make me roll my eyes almost out of my head. It is fantastic for the humour and light entertainment but as far as being an epic read? Sadly I just can’t go that far.

Maddie is back. This time in Vegas with family and friends. Her absentee father finally decides to surface in her life and needs her help to get him out of a jam. And that's not the only surprise he has for her. I don't know what happened to the series. I enjoyed the first one quite a bit. This one, not so much. In fact, if I didn't already order the rest of the books, or had read this one first, I would not be reading the others. There was zero growth from the first book. The characters actually lost some depth if anything. The story is pretty much Ramirez telling Maddie, 'I'm going to tell you all the secrets I'm not allowed to tell anyone. Then I want you to stay right here while I try to do my job.' Then Maddie tells everyone what she was told and does the one thing she was not supposed to do. Then Ramirez miraculously shows up and saves her. Again. About as unlikely as they come. If Ramirez were a real person and not a cardboard cutout of a good cop, he would have ax murdered Maddie about a third of the way through this book. (4/10)

I have officially given up on this series. Cannot tolerate a heroine who is too stupid to live and I have no interest in a ditsy person whose eating habits at fast food restaurants take up a large percentage of the story...

Like the first book, it's an entertaining, fast read. Like other readers, I'm finding it harder to like the main character, Maddie. She's whiny, stubborn, lies all the time and I'm seriously starting to wonder if she has a tapeworm with the way she eats and doesn't seem to gain anything. The author reminds the reader a few times that Maddie only makes enough at her job to pay her rent and keep herself in ramen noodles and high heels. Then WHY does she go out for expensive coffee shop coffee drinks and fast food ALL the time? Girl needs to figure out her priorities.<br /><br />Her counterpart, Jack Ramirez, comes across as the typical "strong, virile man", however, I'm not sure how I feel about him either. He's chauvinistic even though we're introduced to a passel of very strong females in his family in the first book. He pushes his masculinity around and his "I'm all that and a bag of chips" attitude is approaching the "it's a bit much, don't you think" territory.<br /><br />One more character, Maddie's friend, Dana, at least showed some character development in this book. You go girl! HOWEVER - in the last chapter, she went back to her old ways. It was sigh-inducing. <br /><br />So, it was a fast read. It's fairly entertaining. I bought book 3 to see how things go.

Even funnier than the first one! Lots of wacky hijinks, some things that I wasn't expecting and some things I had figured out, but altogether entertaining. I remember looking at this series when browsing for Kindle books and passing on it. You just never know from the small blurbs if they are going to be good or not, but this series is more than worth the reasonable prices on Amazon.<br /><br />I'm not a big fan of love triangles, but I rather liked Felix the reporter, probably because he was British and called Maddie, 'love'. I wouldn't mind seeing him again, though I've skimmed the blurbs for most of the future books... and I'll leave it at that.

3.5 for the fun, messed up, light fluffy read.<br /><br />Some of the things that happened in this book were less realistic than the previous one, but hey, the humour that kept popping up made this still a relatively enjoyable read, not to mention all those moments with Ramirez..... ;)

I enjoyed it from start to finish.