Sandra Orchard

A Fool And His Monet (2016) (S. Jones #1) by Sandra Orchard. We are introduced to Serena Jones of the F.B.I. Art Crime Team. She operates out of the St. Louis Field Office. An art museum in town discovers it has two paintings missing, one being a Monet from the title.
Here there is a very nice lead character with a good supporting cast. Serene is very attractive although she don’t realize how this effects the men around her. She is smart but not brilliant and she needs a lot of help along the way. She has a mother who doesn’t want her in the F.B.I. but would sooner see her married and having babies. There is a fun aunt involved, one that butts into the investigation every chance she gets. There are at lest three potential mates for Serena hanging about. One is an older co-worker who is ex-S.W.A.T., one the very attractive manager of her apartment building, and the lest is a brother of her best friend that Serena has know forever.
I’ve said all this because I feel as if I’ve read this story time and again. A Fool And His Monet is aimed at readers of the Stephanie Plum books. The cast here are altered incarnations of those books’ characters. The story is different but you could fit this tale in with the others and it wouldn’t be too much of a standout.
That said, if you haven’t read the other series, by all means jump into this and enjoy. The story is a lot of fun, the interplay of the characters is on the prim side of things, but the mystery is enough to keep the tale going. In short, this might just blossom into something worthwhile.… (mais)