One of Those Malibu Nights

One of Those Malibu Nights by Elizabeth Adler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A weekend camping trip, and out come the guilty pleasures!

This one is definitely a typical guilty pleasure (or as the BF would say, some good fluff....though he would NEVER call it good, lol!). This book is very lighthearted, even for a mystery, as the the fun, playful human interactions are well balanced with the suspense and intrigue. The interwoven story lines also made this enjoyable, though on a few occasions I felt the number of people who seem to come to the same private investigator, unbeknownst to each other and in relation to the same overall set of problems, was a little over the top and not believable. To the author's credit though, this is fiction so of course there is room for all the creative license one would like to employ, but I am sometimes a bit put off by the moments where I go "really?!" - it just seems to me to be easier to get into a story like this when there is at least some feeling that things going on could actually happen.

The only other thing I didn't love as much about this book was the way the relationship between Mac and Sunny shaped up and played out. We are introduced to Sunny as being Mac's "on again, off again" girlfriend who wanted to get married though Mac is "happy how things are". I won't throw in a spoiler, but will just say that the state of their relationship at the end of the book was a bit disappointing, though not for the normal reasons. This didn't originally bother me when first reading, as I was not aware that this was the first book in a series, but upon realizing that there were additional books, I was bit bummed out. The "on again, off again" and "will they or won't they" scenario is one that has a lot of potential in a series. Yes, it can be somewhat annoying sometimes when the latest book or episode leaves you wondering until the next comes out, but in the end it is one of the great elements that they know will keep readers and viewers coming back, and I think too much happened in this one story that could have been spread out over at least one, if not two, other books that would have added to the desire to read the next one.
Otherwise, a great lazy hammock afternoon read!

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