Pauline Sokol is a thirty-something burned out ex-nurse.  She now works as an investigator for an insurance company on fraud cases.  Her latest is an ambulance company who are billing far too much.   

Her mentor, Jagger, is along to help and cause some sexual tension.  At the ambulance company she meets ER Dano, the company’s long-standing paramedic and some other new characters, who attend several crises while Jagger and Pauline try to solve their latest case -- which quickly turns from fraud to murder.  Along the way they encounter looney patients and crazy situations, some contrived, some genuinely funny.  And Pauline and ER Dano have a relationship that is the best part of an otherwise simple mystery. 

This book is the sixth in the Pauline Sokol Mystery series.  I haven’t read the previous books and now realize that it was a mistake to jump in part way through the series.  There is an introduction to the main and regular characters but it’s brief and assumes you know more than you do.   

The story is written in first person, which I love, but as a result Pauline’s character is pretty shallow through this book.  She’s really just the eyes and ears for the other, more interesting characters.  Jagger is helping her, which I assume means he’s more active in this story than usual, but I had a hard time relating to him other than as a brotherly character meant to nudge her along.  I didn’t sense the sexual tension the character often referred to.  

The story was fun and imaginative though, and the pace and storyline urged me through the book.  I’ll most likely go back and read from book one in hopes of understanding the characters better, as the author seems to be continuing with this and another related series.   

Reviewed for The Road to Romance by Sue Waldeck

September 22, 2007