When Harvard University English Professor and dyed-in-the wool romantic Gilbert Reedy is mysteriously murdered and thrown off his fourth-floor balcony, Lizzy and Diesel take up his twenty-year quest for the Luxuria Stone, an ancient relic believed by some to be infused with the power of lust. Following clues contained in a cryptic nineteenth-century book of sonnets, Lizzy and Diesel tear through Boston catacombs, government buildings, and multimillion-dollar residences. On their way they’ll leave behind a trail of robbed graves, public disturbances, and general mayhem.
Diesel’s black sheep cousin, Gerwulf Grimoire also wants the Stone. His motives are far from pure, and what he plans on doing with the treasure, no one knows… but Lizzy Tucker fears she’s in his crosshairs. Never far and always watching, Grimoire has a growing, vested interest in the cupcake-baker-turned-finder-of-lost-things. As does another dangerous and dark opponent in the hunt – a devotee of lawlessness and chaos, known only as Anarchy.
Treasures will be sought, and the power of lust will be unmistakable as Lizzy and Diesel attempt to stay ahead of Anarchy, Grimoire, and his medieval minion, Hatchet, in this ancient game of twisted riddles and high-stakes hide-and-seek.
When a copy of Wicked Business, the second book in the Lizzy and Diesel series, dropped through my letterbox I wasn't really sure what to expect as paranormal/fantasy fiction is definitely not my bag. I don't think I've got a vivid enough imagination to follow the storylines and have to confess I'm probably one of the minority who has never read The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings or any of the Harry Potter books!
In her new series of Wicked books Janet Evanovich introduces us to a quest to find the Saligia Stones, each stone representing one of the Seven Deadly sins, Gluttony, Lust, Sloth, Envy, Greed, Anger and Pride, which if brought together could unleash their combined power and create hell on earth.
The first book, Wicked Appetite, saw Lizzy pair up with the mysterious and handsome Diesel to try and stop his cousin Gerewulf in his quest from finding the stone that represents Gluttony. We're introduced to a whole host of weird characters including an extremely bad-mannered monkey called Carl, a cat with a glass eye and quirky Glo, Lizzy's work colleague, whose attempts at casting spells from her spell book don't always have the desired effect!
And in Wicked Business there's more of the same as Lizzy and Diesel continue to do battle with Wulf except this time they are trying to stop him from finding the Luxuria stone which represents the deadly sin of lust.
I'm sorry to say that I gave up half way through this book as it's all a bit too far-fetched and unbelievable for me so I couldn't tell you how it ends although I suspect that they did manage to get their hands on the stone... If you're a fan of fantasy fiction then these books are probably more up your street than mine and you'd probably enjoy reading them whereas I found reading them a bit of a struggle.
Although I didn't love either of the Wicked books I'd still like to thank Caitlin at Headline for sending them to me and introducing me to a new author. I'm pleased to say that I am enjoying Notorious Nineteen, the latest in the Stephanie Plum series also by Janet which Caitlin also sent me, a lot more. My review of this book will follow shortly.
Sorry to hear that you didn't like the Wicked series as I really enjoyed them but then again I read a lot of paranormal/fantasy books.
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