cover image Obsession, Deceit and Really Dark Chocolate

Obsession, Deceit and Really Dark Chocolate

Kyra Davis, . . Red Dress Ink, $13.95 (393pp) ISBN 978-0-373-89553-3

Sophie Katz flirts with dirty politics and a certain Russian PI in Davis’s cool but sometimes overcaffeinated third chick lit cozy (after 2006’s Passion, Betrayal and Killer Highlights ). A simple favor for Sophie’s college mentor Melanie O’Reilly turns into an investigation after Melanie’s husband, former FBI agent Eugene, is killed in a drive-by shooting. Sophie teams with ex-lover boy Anatoly Darinsky, a licensed San Francisco PI, to crack the case. Eugene had been working as a crackerjack researcher for Flynn Fitzgerald, a conservative Republican running against liberal Democrat Anne Brooke in a hotly contested congressional race. As the killer begins stalking Sophie, she discovers one of the candidates is connected to “the dark underbelly of the furry world” inhabited by fetishists who dress up in animal costumes and get it on with stuffed toys. Wry sociopolitical commentary, the playful romantic negotiations between Anatoly and Sophie and plenty of Starbucks coffee keep this steamy series chugging along. (Sept.)