Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Someone Bad and Something Blue


I became a fan of Miranda Parker after reading A Good Excuse to Be Bad the first installment of The Angel Crawford Series – featuring a female bail bond recovery agent.  In this no holds-barred everything goes  era, where  curse words dominate the pose and the plot gets lost among the pornography, finding a wordsmith with the talent to captivate the reader's attention without resorting to profanity and explicit sex scenes, is rare and rewarding.  I am delighted I found that unique talent in Miranda Parker.

Parker with her fresh writing style introduced readers to and caught their attention with tough-as-nails, Angel Crawford in A Good Excuse to Be Bad and is destined to do so again because Miranda Parker's heroine, Angel Crawford is back in, Someone Bad and Something Blue.  In this installment, Parker takes us into the secretive world of Atlanta's speakeasy society, the inter-workings of the moonshine industry and much more; as Angel and U.S. Marshall Maxim West, who just happens to be a hellva hot hottie, trudge around the Okefenokee Swamp in an effort to solve the murder of The Honorable Elaine Turner's campaign manager, who just happens to be a bull in bear’s clothing.

If you read the first book, you know Angel isn't the type of bail bond recovery agent who just sits around filing her fingernails, not unless she's planning to use them to scratch someone's eyes out.  But if you haven't read A Good Excuse to Be Bad don't fret, Someone Bad and Something Blue reads wonderfully as a standalone and readers will get an actual glimpse into the real Evangeline Crawford.  However, you will want to pick up a copy of A Good Excuse to Be Bad because it's a terrific read as well.

Angle Crawford is such a well-developed character, it feels like she's sitting next to the reader as Miranda Parker steers her through the streets of Atlanta.  So, get ready to venture to places such as, Grits Draft House-a Southern revival cocktail bar; The Dunwoody Detention Center; Flappers, a secret speakeasy in Atlantic Station; Holeman & Finch Public House-for the best burger on the planet or the fictional McArthur Estate in Stone Mountain. As a non-native of Georgia, I never even heard of some of those places, but through the outstanding writing talent of Miranda, I had the opportunity to journey to each of those exciting places, that Parker so vividly described in this intriguing story filled with suspense, action, humor, and romance. 

Parker allows her talent for telling a story to passionately breathe throughout the plot as she captures and holds the attention of her audience.  Her well-developed characters are dynamic and compelling.  Readers will find themselves rooting for Angel, Justus and Maxim and looking forward to the downfall of Knocker, Marlo and Riddick - though at times they won’t and other times they shouldn't.  This story will have readers on edge as they continue to clutch the pages to find out who among the suspects is actually guilty of more than just murder.

I read somewhere, that one of the elements for a good read usually includes some type of boy-girl encounter/interaction, and Someone Bad and Something Blue does not disappoint in that area.  There are a number of romantic encounters that are super steamy without being raunchy or pornographic, which makes it suitable for a wider audience, including young-adults.  The lavender smelling too-darn-fine to be a Reverend, Justus Morgan has claim his role as wanna-be side kick and turned up the heat on the taboo romance as he actively pursues Angel, and she is not resisting his advances. Of course, it wouldn't be interesting if there wasn't any drama or conflict and in this case, it comes wrapped up as U.S. Marshal West, introducing Angel to another sizzling temptation of incredible well-packaged male flesh for head to toe.  Having two well-rounded intelligent gorgeous men within her grasp would have been enough for most women, but Angel is not most women  and when she should have been on the hunt for a size eight silk taffeta, strapless Amsale wedding gown from the Blue Label collection - at the ROTB [running of the brides] she is hunting for killers. 


I love the sense of humor Parker drizzles throughout the story and I found myself laughing out loud at comments like, “…dark thirty in the morning”; “…by the way you look like a pimp’s daughter with that thing.” And the one I found priceless, “…swallow your pride and put your big girl panties on.”

The conclusion of the plot is appealing, which I won’t spoil for readers – except to say, as readers witness Angel’s transformation from bail bond recovery agent to a bonafide PI - the conflict and rising action make it a compelling piece of fiction.  Miranda Parker leaves her readers with some very interesting unanswered questions - to discover the answers - readers must join Angel on her next manhunt in, Can't Keep a Bad Bride Down, coming July 2013 - I am definitely looking forward to the next installment of the Angel Crawford series.
~Until my next review, happy reading.

Someone Bad and Something Blue by Miranda Parker
Genre: Murder Mystery
Publisher: Dafina Books, Kensington Publishing Corp.
Publication Date: July, 2012
Reviewed by Chrystal Dorsey


Review copy provided by publisher.   

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Chrystal, wow. I'm glad you liked SOMEONE BAD and SOMETHING BLUE. Most readers don't know that by the time a novel hits the shelves the author has written two or three more books since then. As I read your review, I wanted to read the book myself until I remembered that I wrote it. lol. Thank you so much.

Now I'm back to writing Book 4.

Chrystal said...

Miranda, I'm glad you wrote Someone Bad and Something Blue and that I had the opportunity to read it, because I really enjoyed it.
You are quite welcome for the review, it was my pleasure to write a good review on a book I really enjoyed.

I can't wait to read the next Angel Crawfordinstallment.