The Recovery Agent

[cornerofmadness]

The Recovery Agent by Janet Evanovich

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I'm beginning to think Evanovich's 'humor' is not mine. This was not humorous but it was ridiculous. If you wanted an AU fanfic of Stephanie Plum in Lara Croft's universe, this is it. Gabriela was almost instantly annoying when she finds her contact dead in the jungle and has no reaction to it. She's a recovery agent for insurance companies and others looking for stolen/lost/legendary objects.

After the in media res opening, we get a little of her backstory, learning her family is about to lose the family home in the Carolinas because of hurricane damage that is killing the entire town. Her grandmother said the family ghost told her of Blackbeard the Pirate's treasure (he's theoretically her relative) and if she gets that treasure she can save the town.

Too bad the first clue is in one of the family's beach houses in the Virgin Islands, the house Gabby left to her ex-husband, Rafer. Naturally he wants in on this and we're off trying to find the ring of Solomon but a drug lord/cult leader also wants it so he can summon demons and honor his evil god.

Here's where it went off the rails for me. SOmehow this didn't work in a way Indiana Jones made the ark or the holy grail somehow believable. It has the same problem. The Ring of Solomon has the same religious connotations and even if she is able to find it, she's not going to be able to sell it to save the town. The reasons she wants this thing is what makes it not that believable because it can't possibly work out. It would have worked better for me if it was just some made up treasure she was after.

But we also have super eye rolling tidbits, like her wearing diamond bracelets into the wilderness to off set her jungle wear or the fact that if she had THIS much money to make multiple trips to Peru, the Islands, NYC etc, she has more than enough money to keep the family home. Also where is Rafer getting all the cash for next-day plane tickets right along with her?

None of this really tracked for me and there is an additional annoyance in the audio book, the total overuse of dialogue tags. Listening to he/she said again and again even where there are only two speakers was grating.



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