Review: New humorous mystery series always welcome!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 2, 2011
I bought this second Dix Dodd mystery after reading the first one- The Case of the Flashing Fashion Queen.  Other reviewers of this and the other book have compared them to Evanovich.  These books so far aren't quite up to that laugh out loud cleverness (I'm talking early Evanovich, not the last few) but are still fun reads.  Hopefully this series will continue and evolve-it's has the potential to become better than the Stephanie Plum series because the characters have more grittiness and dimension than the one note joke Evanovich characters.Dix is a P.I. who has started her own firm after figuring out that she can't ever become more than a gofer in a traditional firm in the male dominated private investigator business. She's determined to succeed and relies mostly on her amazing intuition, along with her disguise ability and just plain inability to stop until it's done.  I fell in love with the supporting characters, they're a hoot.  We have the brilliant hunky assistant, who has a backstory of his own, and Mrs. Presley, the owner of a skuzzy, rent by the hour motel who wears blue suede shoes and has a heart of gold, as long as you don't cross her. Then we have the Mrs. Presley's sons-two behemoths who still need their mama, and Dix's mom, an outrageous woman with a story of her own (she was a magician's assistant for years before she married and claims she learned to do real magic.)I liked the first book better.  Which you should read before this one anyway.  The first was a murder mystery which had more twists and turns and action than this one about stolen jewelry.  Or it could just be me OD'ing, I bought this one and read it immediately after reading Flashing Fashion because I wanted more!  Or maybe it's because there's just not going to be as much action in a story set in a retirement village...In any event, N.L. Wilson has made it to my favorite author list and I look forward to the next Dix Dodd mystery.