Ready to Fumble
I’m not really a private detective. I just play one on TV.
Joey Darling, better known to the world as Raven Remington, detective extraordinaire, is trying to separate herself from her invincible alter ego. She played the spunky character for five years on the hit TV show Relentless, which catapulted her to fame and into the role of Hollywood’s sweetheart.
When her marriage falls apart, her finances dwindle to nothing, and her father disappears, Joey finds herself on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, trying to piece her life back together away from the limelight. A woman finds Raven—er, Joey—and insists on hiring her fictional counterpart to find a missing boyfriend. When someone begins staging crime scenes to match an episode of Relentless, Joey has no choice but to get involved.
Joey’s bumbling sleuthing abilities have her butting heads with Detective Jackson Sullivan and kindling sparks with thrill-seeking neighbor Zane Oakley. Can Joey channel her inner Raven and unearth whodunit before she ends up totally done in? And where is her father anyway? Can she handle fame, or is disappearing into obscurity the wiser option?
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READY TO FUMBLE is the first book in The Worst Detective Ever Mystery Series. I love Joey. She is so sweet and clueless. I love Zane and I love Jackson. I can’t decide who I want the hero to be, both of them have totally won my heart.
I absolutely cannot wait for the next book in this series to be released (this month!) Reign of Error.
If you like cozy mysteries, you will absolutely adore READY TO FUMBLE. I can’t say enough good things about it. A totally relatable heroine, even if she is a former movie star, an aunt, appropriately named Dizzy, two wonderful heroic heroes, and a mystery! And no, I didn’t guess who-dun-it. I had suspicions, but wow. In this bumbling fumbling cozy anything goes and things are not as they seem.
Must read.
Reign of Error
Sometimes in life, you just want to yell “Take two!”
When a Polar Plunge goes terribly wrong and someone dies in the icy water, former TV detective Joey Darling wants nothing to do with subsequent investigation. But when her picture is found in the dead man’s wallet and witnesses place her as the last person seen with the man, she realizes she’s been cast in a role she never wanted: suspect.
Joey makes the dramatic mistake of challenging the killer on camera, and now it’s a race to find the bad guy before he finds her. Danger abounds and suspects are harder to find than the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island. But when Joey finds a connection with this case and the disappearance of her father, she knows there’s no backing out.
As hard as Joey tries to be like her super detective alter ego, the more things go wrong. Will Joey figure this one out? Or will her reign of error continue?
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REIGN OF ERROR is the second book in Ms. Barritt’s newest series, The Worst Detective Ever Mystery Series. I have to admit, she is a really clueless investigator, but I can’t say I’d do much better! I have to love following Joey around and trying to unravel the clues as she learned them… I’m anxious to follow her into the next book in the series Safety in Blunders to see what happens next!
I love both Jackson – the police detective – and Zane – the fun loving guy who was always up for anything, dangerous or not.
Ms. Barritt has a very active mind, she comes up with such unique plots and stories that come alive due to them. If you are a fan of cozy mysteries, then you’ll want to read Ready to Fumble (first) followed by this book REIGN OF ERROR. Although I think you could read them out of order… I haven’t… and the books are tied together (as in continuing). Must read.
Safety in Blunders
My name is Joey Darling, and I’m a disgrace to imaginary detectives everywhere.
When actress Joey Darling discovers a mermaid tail with drops of fresh blood on it while hiking in a remote nature preserve, she knows something suspicious is going on.
As details surface, Joey realizes she’s dealing with a problem she has encountered one too many times: someone desperate for fame who falls victim to a predator. With the help of her neighbor Zane Oakley and the opposition of local detective Jackson Sullivan, Joey hunts for answers, unaware of the deadly net in which she’s about to entangle herself.
Joey knows she’s a fish out of water when it comes to cracking cases, but can she use her talent—acting—to help find the missing woman? Or will Joey end up swimming with sharks?
SAFETY IN BLUNDERS is the third in the Worst Detective Ever series by Christy Barritt but it easily stands alone. Fans will not want to miss Joey’s latest misadventures as another case falls in her lap while she’s minding her own business at the beauty shop where she works.
I had fun trying to figure out who-dun-it and what they did exactly, as nothing was clear except for a missing person, a bloody mermaid tail, and a whole slew of rich and famous wannabes who were up to no good.
I love Zane and Jackson both, and while I have my idea who I’d like Joey to end up with (assuming it ends with a romance) I won’t be disappointed either way.
SAFETY IN BLUNDERS didn’t have the sass and zing that the first two books in the series had (Ready to Fumble and Reign of Error) and it was a slower-paced book, but it was still one of the best books I’ve read this month. (I read this in April,)
If you like cozy mysteries, then please give Ms. Barritt’s Worst Detective Ever series a try.
