Book 6, 2021

[chez_jae]

Merit Badge Murder by Leslie Langtry

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



In addition to finishing my "work" book last night, I also finished the one I'd been reading at home. It was Merit Badge Murder by Leslie Langtry, which is the first in the "Merry Wrath" cozy mystery series. Story is told in first person pov by the main character, Merry, who is a retired CIA agent trying to assimilate back into society.

Having been outed as a CIA agent, Merry Wrath had to give up her career in espionage. She's changed her name and appearance and returned to her hometown in Iowa, where she keeps busy hanging out with her childhood BFF Kelly (who knows her story) and helping to lead a troop of Girl Scouts. Her life has become bland, boring and predictable until an al-Queda agent shows up dead at scout camp.

Merry finds this highly suspicious (an al-Queda agent in Iowa?!), and when she hits a Colombian drug lord with her car and kills him it seems that someone is targeting her. Merry's former supervisor, sexy Riley, arrives in town to help her investigate and to hide her involvement as a former spy. In the meantime, the new hot neighbor across the street turns out to be the detective in charge of the investigation into the death of the drug lord, and Merry ends up saddled with a former KGB agent, whom she turned to a spy for the CIA. Lana is voluptuous and beautiful, and Merry alternates between hating her and feeling sorry for her, especially when it turns out that Lana may have been the target all along. Things really get dicey when a Yakuza agent winds up dead in Merry's kitchen. She may have been out of the game for a year now, but Merry hasn't lost her skills. It's up to her to flush out the secret agents in town, take care of her own, and bust some heads while she's at it.

This story was a flippin' hoot! I laughed all through it and enjoyed the hell out of it. Merry is like the girl next door, but she's a complete badass when the situation warrants it. I had a heck of a time trying to figure out who was behind all of Merry's misfortunes, waffling between Lana, Riley, and even Rex (the detective). Characterizations were wonderful, dialogue was scintillating, and Merry's inner dialogue was witty and fun.

Favorite lines:
♦ I'm sure the irony would be lost on him that in death he really was surrounded by seventy-two virgins. Did it matter that they were grade-schoolers, I wondered?
♦ Troop Leader's Helpful Hint Number Two--when talking to little girls, always smile. They cry if you don't. I'm not kidding. You don't know real terror until you've stared at the watery eyes and rubbery bottom lip of a cute kid.
♦ On the drive home I was congratulating myself on my foresight and thinking this might lead to some day buying a whole quart of milk, when I ran over a man.
♦ Well, maybe that meant he was here to ask me out. He must've seen me drive up in the dented, bloodstained car, my face covered in crumbled Oreos and thought--now that's a woman I need to get to know!
♦ She wailed in a voice that somehow made it seem like I was strangling kittens in front of school children.
♦ That was the Midwest answer to anything uncomfortable. Bring a casserole. It was the ultimate 'I'm sorry/congrats on the new baby/I have no idea what to say but I can bake' thing.
This is absolutely true!
♦ "Twinkies will make this better!"
♦ When other kids played capture the flag, I spied on them and gave misleading information to both sides, selling them out for M&M's, quarters, and the occasional kitten.
♦ What I read made me more terrified than when I found out I'd accidentally eaten the wrong part of the blowfish.
♦ We'd stand out in a salad joint--mainly because I would be dramatically crawling across the floor, begging for greasy food.

This book reminded me quite a bit of the "Charley Davidson" series by Darynda Jones. In fact, I think Charley and Merry would be boon companions. I was sorry when this one ended, and I will most certainly be reading more in the series. Highly recommended!

Five stars!