A Date You Can’t Refuse

Wollie Shelley—reluctant dating expert, graphic artist and fledgling spy—goes undercover for the FBI to investigate MediasRex, a California media training company, in Kozak’s wild fourth caper (after 2007’s Dead Ex ). The company’s owner, Yuri Milos, hires Wollie to be a social coach and dating surrogate for such clients as clownish Zbiggo Shpek, a Moldovan heavyweight boxer. Wollie’s FBI agent boyfriend, Simon Alexander, is alarmed, even if her three-month gig will pay $50,000, since Yuri has dangerous Eastern European political connections. Inside MediasRex’s Calabasas compound, Wollie learns that the previous dating coach, Chai, a former America’s Next Top Model contender, was killed in a car accident, though Chai’s boyfriend insists she was murdered. Kozak keeps the laughs and chills in bewitching balance as Wollie uncovers the secrets of Yuri’s extended family—and suffers a first-time dating consequence in the surprising denouement. (Mar.)