Review: The Dimple of Doom

The Dimple of Doom by Lucy Woodhull
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 stars

Why hadn't I run to the coppers? Because his eyes made me wet.
There were worse reasons.

This book kind of ran me over like a Mack truck; it was frenetic, wild, manic, funny, sexy, and at times, only seemed to be held together with a wing and a prayer. The characters, story, and tone is in the same vein as Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie and Spotless by Camilla Monk. Although, those books had a bit tighter plot, this one's ending got pretty convoluted with some characters getting extra criminal-ly towards the end.

"Did you just say to me that you kidnapped me as a favour because evil men were after me because you caused them to be after me?"

The story is from our heroine Samantha's point of view and her stream of conscious is full of innuendos, pop culture, and overall screwball comedy. I definitely missed insight from our hero Sam (oh yes, your main couple is Sam and Samantha) but he still showed up strong from his interactions with Samantha. Their back and forth was delightful but you're going to have to like your humor a bit left of center to enjoy the ride, old curmudgeon me even guffawed a few times.

As I mentioned, the tone and pace is a bit frenetic and manic as our couple runs from police and criminals alike which keeps the pages flipping by but it also got a bit wearying a little over half-way through. Have you ever ridden the Sizzler at a carnival? It was a bit like that, "Wee! This is wild and fun, feel the air rush by me!" and then you go on it for one too many times, banging against the sides of your seat and it's like "Ouch! $%*%! I'm going to throw up!", as the wind isn't so much whipping in your hair as you're getting neck breaking whiplash. Some of the middle and maybe one extra criminal could have been left out to streamline the story and cut it short.

This is also book one in a trilogy about Sam and Samantha, so while I wouldn't call it a complete cliffhanger, you get more of a happy for now and clearly their story isn't over ending. I was hugely pleasantly surprised by this one, the humor won't be for everyone but I'll definitely be gearing up to strap myself in for another wild ride with these two.


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