Mastermind for Murder by Leslie Langtree
Fiction, Cozy Mystery, Humor
4****
Blurb: When one of the girls in ex-CIA spy turned Girl Scout leader, Merry Wrath Ferguson’s, scout troop insists that there’s a sleeper cell in Who’s There, Iowa, Merry laughs it off. After all, she was an actual spy! What would a middle school kid know about things like that? Of course, the fact that it’s Betty, the most dangerous thirteen year old on the planet, does give Merry a little pause. But seriously, in a town of about five thousand people, a group of foreign terrorists would stand out…right? Or so she thinks, until the CIA quietly asks Merry and her former handler Riley to look into it. It doesn’t help that inept-beyond-all-belief FBI agents Summer and Winter (yes, their real names) are also looking into it, or that Merry’s buddy, CIA assassin Hilly, plays hooky from an assignment to help out—by sending the hapless Abed (CIA flunkie and Girl Scout cookie junkie) to float the flounder in her place. Still, Merry thinks this is nothing more than a wild goose chase until a mysterious, elderly woman is murdered. Now, Merry has second thoughts and finds herself in a race to unravel the woman’s past and find the sleeper cell, before she becomes the next target.
THOUGHTS: There are a lot of books in this series and the fun never ends. When you read these, you definitely have to suspend belief. You have to believe that four hamsters can be cops and firemen. Or that a fourteen-year-old can be the innovative mayor of town, and her friend can have connections with multiple shadow groups and know way too much for a young teenager about bombs, poisons, and more. The stories are darkly funny with assassins, CIA agents, murders, and all in a strange little town in Iowa.
In this one, Merry Wrath, an ex-CIA operative and leader of the girl scout group that includes the two above as well as several other teen girls. Unlike the other books, the scouts aren’t as prevalent in this book as in the others. This one centers mostly around Betty, our dangerous security girl as she and Merry and others try to find a sleeper cell. What they find is so much more. From inept sleeper spies to the cop hamsters now working with the fire department–there so much to follow. If you’re liked the other books in the series, you’ll like this one too.
Recommended.
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