Go me - I finished a book! Woohoo!Ok...
I have come to the conclusion that Crusie's strong point is she's great at character studies; it's just that sometimes I really don't relate well to the character she's created.
Maddie is a respectable hobbit who never does anything unexpected - well, other than giving her virginity to the town trouble maker in revenge because her erstwhile boyfriend kissed some OTHER girl after the big game. Since then, she's married said boyfriend, had a kid, and behaved herself. Her husband, OTOH, has embezzled from the company he partially owns, and cheated on her with... a lot of women. He also has a kid - with her best friend (who is terrified she - and the friend's husband - will figure it out, particularly since the kid is about as old as her marriage.
In the beginning, having more or less become a polite stranger to her husband, she volunteers to clean out his car and finds a pair of crotchless panties under the seat. Shortly afterwards, the troublemaker from her youth turns up. He's now an accountant(!) and is investigating the company because his ex-wife's fiancee has invested in this company and the ex is suspicious. So we spend a lot of time over the next few days wondering where the husband is because he keeps avoiding accountant before vanishing for good. Then money, lots of money, starts turning up in strange places, his corpse is found, more money is found, as is the gun.
Eventually, everything comes to a head, and Maddie embraces her inner Took.
So what did I find annoying... I think maybe it was the whole small town everyone in your business setting. Following that, the h's pulling away from everyone after the funeral. Ok, if she were genuinely grieving, I could see it but... well, maybe in a way she was, since she'd just figured out that her BFF had slept with her boyfriend when they were still in school. I guess that would bother me. OTOH, by this time, she already knew what a douchebag her husband was, so why would she be surprised? Especially since it was way in the past, and she knew her BFF despised her husband (so obviously wasn't pursuing him).
Eh. It wasn't bad, but I wouldn't reread it. Really, the highlight of the book was in the last 50 pages or so when she a) confessed to the sheriff about all the money, the murder weapon, and several other things.
