JUST ADD WATER

JUST ADD WATER
Author: Jinx Schwartz
Copyright 2008
Whoodoo Mysteries
Paperback $14.95
9781932695205
341 pages

Sometimes it’s just fun to read a book where the actions of one character just makes you laugh and secretly wish that you personally had the nerve and the courage of that character. (Or maybe you’re just glad that you aren’t that person.)

The main character, Hetta Coffey, is a civil engineer consultant with a delightfully spunky attitude towards men and life. Hetta and her best friend, Jan are looking desperately for a way to meet men so they decide to take yachting lessons. After all, yachting should be a great place to find wealthier men. Hetta even manages to buy her own boat along with its former inhabitant who doesn’t want or plan to leave it.

Hetta is also healing from a previous relationship from almost being left-at-the-altar. Her dog is her most faithful male relationship. Juggling a contractual job, a dying dog, an aging home, and no man makes this delightful book memorable.

The mystery part of the book doesn’t really begin until Hetta’s former husband-to-be who is wanted by Interpol and has been missing for years, ends up dead in her hot tub which hasn’t always been working. Where has he been? Why now? Does Hetta have something that he was hiding?

JUST ADD WATER could also be called “The Misadventures of Hetta Coffey”. This is the first in a series of books by Jinx Schwartz who spends time in Arizona watching her husband being addicted to golf and fortunately, Jinx is addicted to writing. If JUST ADD WATER is an example of books to come, Jinx Schwartz will become better known and surpass Janet Evanovich whose books are similar in style.