The Kookaburra Gambit: A Kylie Kendall Mystery

By Claire McNab

Book Overview

Owning fifty-one percent of an L.A. detective agency isn't as exciting as it sounds when your partner--gorgeous though she is--won't let you solve any cases. Transplanted Aussie Kylie Kendall is... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1555839045
• ISBN13: 9781555839048
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: Alyson Books
• Length: 227 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

The 'Gambit''s a Gambol!

A self-absorbed receptionist who treats her day job as if she were awarding her co-workers a treasured personal appearance; An icy, blue-eyed blonde who makes the slightly klutzy Kylie trip over herself even more than usual; and A pseudo-preacher to the stars, offering his supplicants one of his hands in compassion while the other steals through their pockets. These are some of the priceless characters waiting to delight the reader in Claire McNab's second Kylie Kendall mystery. (Note to reader: If by chance you missed the first of the series, "The Wombat Strategy," stop reading this immediately and go get it!) Now where were we? Though the setting is Los Angeles at its Kleig-lit best, we see it far more clearly through the eyes of our newly-transplanted Australian heroine, the funny, adorable and ingenuous Kylie Kendall. Take the greedy Hollywood bad guys lying and conniving as usual, add Kylie, the detective-with-training-wheels hot on their trail, doing her newbie best not to get lost in either the hairpin twists of the plot as well as the L.A. streets and Bam! you get one deliciously deadly, funny mix. Lighter in tone than Ms. McNab's other two series, the Carol Ashton and Denise Cleever mysteries, "The Kookaburra Gambit" has only one fault--it ends far too quickly. Hurry, Ms. McNab, and present us with the next book in this series, "The Quokka Question." So, Ms. McNab ... how's that writing coming? Are you done yet?

Smashing good fun, blokes!

Ms. McNab lives up to the promise shown in the Wombat Strategy, her first Kylie Kendall Mystery. The Kookaburra Gambit takes up where the Wombat Strategy left off. Our heroine is a neophyte private eye, newly arrived from down under. She is still (very capably) learning to cope with all the differences in her world. The mystery is great, and the book is genuinely funny. The matchup between Kylie and the rabid Christian right is fine to see. I just wish these books were longer, and came out lots more often. I can hardly wait for the next volume in the series!