WIFEY 4 LIFE

I haven't read this book.  I haven't even seen this book.  When typing out the list of top twenty reserves, below, I just happened to be intrigued by the title of the book by Kiki Swinson (not to mention the author's name).  And there was a note in the Library Journal list, nudging the reader to have a look at their review.

The review was written by Rollie Welch, of Cleveland Public Library.  Apparently Wifey 4 Life belongs to a genre known as "Street Lit," which I freely confess I have never heard of before.  Seemingly, these street lit books are published by either Urban Books or Melodrama Publishers, which is an indicator, I guess, of their content.  Unsurprisingly, they are paperbacks.

The theme is murder and mayhem in the CBD (downunder-ese for "central business district").  The protagonists are female, but otherwise belong to the hardboiled mystery club. Indeed, the review makes Swinson's heroine, Kira Walters, sound rather like JD Macdonald's Travis McGee, with bosoms.  Vacationing in Anguilla with a sexy boyfriend, Walters is summoned back to Norfolk, Virginia, by some sort of rum deal to do with real estate.  Norfolk (a perfectly charming town, in my experience) was the scene of the demise of her husband, a drug dealer, so she goes reluctantly.  She is kidnapped, outwits a gang of thugs, and then goes about wreaking her personal revenge.

Says Welch, Swinson is at the top of her game with this fifth in a series.  Buy the lot, says he.  Apparently his readers prefer to put it on hold.