Multicolored Totes

Truth or Dare by Jayne Ann Krentz

I should have dared to keep walking past this book but it was just lying there calling my name...so of course I had to pick it up. Ethan Truax, Zoe Luce and the capacious totes are back for another adventure or two or three. There’s so much going on in this book and none of it is done well. Ethan is still hunky, Zoe is grating and, well…the totes accompany them on every adventure. It’s amazing that they come in so many colors and are able to carry a wallet, lipstick, a flashlight, a tool kit, band aids, a camera, measuring tape, appointment calendar, sketchbook, box of colored pencils, felt markers, tile samples and fabric swatches. All the basic tools for a crime fighting interior designer.  All that was left out was a can of paint.

It’s been six weeks since Zoe and Ethan eloped in Vegas and she has become a nagging wife who’s concerned about healthy prostates, sunscreen, cereal choices, soy milk and key chain flashlights for her sexy PI husband, Ethan.  Zoe’s psychic spider webs are a bore considering she senses something everywhere and yet nothing ever comes of them except a crazy apartment manager.  At least they have sex on a regular basis but it’s not really that steamy.

Zoe's questionable fashion choices are back especially when compared to her chic design rival from LA, Lindsey Voyle.  Lindsey wears tailored black suits with a leather satchel and Zoe wears a long, sleeveless dress in violet,  with a green duster and red tote or a light turqoise pullover with a skirt the same clolor with gauzy fabric that drifts around her calves. 

JAK is so disjointed in this book. She spends the first half of the book recounting the happenings of Light in Shadow, then there’s the mystery with Arcadia and Harry, psychic spider webs with Zoe, an interior decorating contest, a loony bodybuilder, an over-the-hill Private Investigator, a crazy meditation guru, the pink house remodeling (it’s about time) and a cold case from years ago trying to be solved. Like I said Ethan is still sexy.

There’s limited romance in this book and a whole lot of boredom.