Agnes and the Hitman: Review

I wasn't planning on reviewing books I've read because I feel like it is starting to get repetitive (mayhaps because I have been reading all chick lit and mystery), but then I read Agnes and the Hitman and decided that I had to rave about it.

Agnes and the Hitman is the second collaboration between Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer and it was sooooo great. It is a contemporary romance/chick lit type novel mixed with an action adventure. There were a lot of killings, a lot of swearing, and some really hot sex. All my favorite things in a story! It is like if you took True Blood, removed the vampires, and added the mob. As in any Jennifer Crusie novel, there were approximately 18 different story lines and 2700 characters. But I was able to keep most of it straight generally. I had a few times of having to flip back to an earlier section to check on a name or relation, but most everything was spelled out in the end for those readers like me who occasionally read too fast to remember who people are and how they are connected.

I loved the main characters a whole lot. Agnes used to go to a therapist so a lot of her inner dialog is "talking" to the therapist, yet ignoring the advice. Agnes also has some anger issues...in that she has a tendency to hit guys with frying pans if they cheat on her/threaten her with a gun. There was also a little incident with a meat fork to the neck. See, romance novel with lots of violence! Fun! Shane, the hitman, is fairly calm in his killings and his every day life, which is a nice match for how Agnes tends to explode about everything. Really, one of the best pairs of characters in a novel I've read.

The secondary characters all had interesting stories and I would read books about all of them, but my favorite was Carpenter, Shane's work partner. He is the one who cleans up after the hits and is a Spiritual Humanist, so he is often found just being calm or giving good life advice. Essentially, he just cracks me up. I feel like there could have been a concurrent story between Carpenter and Agnes' best friend, Lisa Livia.

My favorite thing about Agnes and the Himan was the dialog. It was some of the funniest and snappiest dialog from a book. If you've seen Buffy or Firefly, think of that dialog. How it flies by and makes you laugh and makes you want to quote it. It just feels real, but more. Like...the dialog is how I wish I talked, but it still seemed plausible and real. And it kept making me laugh out loud, which doesn't usually happen when I read. A little giggle or something, sure. But actual laughter is rare. And happened numerous times while reading.

Essentially, this is probably my favorite Jennifer Crusie novel. It took all the elements of her other novels that I love and added excessive amounts of violence and swearing. It was everything I like my books to be...strong female character, guy who challenges heroine without being a dick about it or trying to take her independence, lots of mystery, lots of yelling at people, an awesome dog, and hitting people with frying pans! I highly highly recommend reading Agnes and the Hitman.

I am now starting on a mystery novel I randomly picked up called Steamed by Jessica Conant-Park and Susan Conant. Probably won't review it unless it is super awesome or super awful.