Double Whammy: (A Davis Way Crime Caper Book 1) Paperback – September 18, 2018

Unemployed former police officer Davis Way is down on her luck when she gets a job too good to be true. Working undercover in a Biloxi casino Davis is given a set of instructions and that’s to figure out how a particular slot machine is won. At first Davis grudgingly takes on the job, but the further she digs the more she finds that some things just don’t make sense. For example, what does her ex-husband have to do with the slot machines? Suddenly Davis finds herself in too deep and when she’s arrested for attempted murder no one believes her story and to make matters worse, there’s questions surrounding her identity. Will Davis be able to prove her innocence before the real culprit skips town?We have good character development. Davis isn’t your typical former police officer; not only does she have a degree in criminal justice but one in computer science. She’s also not one to shy away from a job even if she hates it and she relies on no one except herself. We have a wide array of secondary characters that play a role including the mysterious Bradley Cole. I won’t go into detail regarding his character because I had so much fun meeting him and I want you to experience it. The real treat was Davis’ sister and her family.Narration is first person and at times it is hard to trust Davis as a narrator because she’s all over the place and by that I mean…it’s hard keeping up with her and her thought process. She’s always has one foot ahead of the reader and I really like how Archer set this up because everyone around Davis wonders what Davis is talking about. Like them, we are kept in the dark and it’s a fun and unique experience. If I have one small compliant it’s that we get too much personal history intertwined with the narrative. This can prove problematic in the long run especially new readers coming to the series and having to backtrack for information or the narrative can quickly grow stale with recycled information we already know. While I do appreciate getting to know how Davis became who she is, she spends a good amount of time talking about her ex Eddie that I wish we would have seen more of him. No doubt Archer plans a book dedicated solely to Eddie and perhaps his demise? Or is that wishful thinking?As for the overall mystery we’re left with a few unanswered questions, but that’s okay. I won’t go into detail regarding the plot since I don’t want to spoil anything, but let’s just say I didn’t see that coming even though I had my suspicions. There are also a few relationships that aren’t quite cleared up. Archer just makes a general assessment that so and so were in on it or had a history, but nothing is gone into detail. A little more information would have been nice.Despite a few hiccups, Archer’s DOUBLE WHAMMY was such a delightful read. I can’t wait to read more in the series and of course spend more time with Bradley. If you’re a fan of amateur sleuths, you’ll really enjoy Gretchen Archer’s DOUBLE WHAMMY.

I enjoyed everything about the book except the head scratcher romance between Davis our FMC with a random cool name and Bradley the lawyer she sub leased from. And how the couldn't identify her when she gave them her name, DOB, social, etc. There are several plot holes, (large ones) but it's a random, cute cozy so let most slide. Told from her POV. Standalone. No cliffhanger. HFN as this is a series with ongoing arc. That being said, the book is really entertaining and I loved the little mysteries she helped solve.You just have to accept it's a beach read, not accurate or sometimes even plausible mystery.******spoilers******Bradley randomly shows up to prison where she was arrested, because of a note she left on his fridge. She basically invaded his entire life and in her head only, as she never met him, became attached and talked to his picture. She is in prison because she is an idiot. She didn't do what they accused her of. BUT she didn't put anyone who could identify her on her list of visitors. Also, they kept saying her name wasn't real and entered her as Jane Doe. They are cops, lawyers, judge and prison system. Is there a reason running her drivers license and the social security number she gave them didn't produce her freaking picture and name? She spent a month in prison. They said her father had heart attack. How did they know that if she didn't show up in system under him as child. She was also an officer previously. Which means her prints are on file. They had to verify who she was via her father. A man who wasn't available for weeks because he had a heart attack and couldn't be contacted. Her entire family except her dad were complete Jack holes who should never be allowed near children.So she meets Bradley for first time while she's in prison. He doesn't know her. Tries to get her out. Suddenly, with no flirting,chemistry, backstory, NOTHING, they are in a relationship. It was weird and random like most of this book. I rated a three and will read book two, because it was also highly entertaining. I loved the mysteries she was asked to help solve with the hotel, the Casino, etc.

Loved the concept of having someone who looks exactly like someone else - not sure Davis Way is so enamoured. I really liked the plot ( I am not writing about it here as I think many of these reviews are spoilers) and I loved the end. Bought Double dip straight after and was not disappointed.

Brilliant, love these books

In this, her debut novel, Gretchen Archer brings us a “new to the block” amateur detective in the same vein as Stephanie Plum and, for us Aussies, Erica Jewell, introducing us to Davis Way from Pine Apple, Alabama (yes, seriously)!Davis has had a run of bad luck lately. A former police officer in Pine Apple (with two degrees behind her name, one in Criminal Justice and the other in Computer and Information Science), she’s found herself unemployed and down on her luck. Ready to take her sister’s advice and get out of town to make a fresh start, away from her mother (who sends her eviction notices when she’s late on her rent), she finds herself in Biloxi, Mississippi.With her no-good ex-ex-husband, Eddie Crawford – yes, she married him twice – frequenting Biloxi himself, she’s hoping that it’s big enough to prevent them bumping into each other. After all, it’s taken her every dime she had to divorce him (again), and he’s lucky he’s alive.However, she has no idea what she’s letting herself in for when she finds herself applying for the same job at the Bellissimo Casino fifty times, and finally landing the job as their in-house investigator. Her job description - to figure out who is winning all the money on one of their gambling machines as well as the modus operandi. Not that she knew that when she signed the “phone book”!A few days into the job, poor Davis seems to be in over her head when she discovers (thanks to her two new friends Mary and Maxine) exactly who it is that’s winning all the money and hastily decides that it’s in everyone’s best interests to resign. Unfortunately, her employer has bad news! The employment agreement she signed, “the phone book”? Well, it says she has to work for them for ninety days or pay back all the money they’ve spent on placing her, including that which she’s lavishly spent on her new life. For the first time in her life, her clothing and shoes are expensive, her living and work environment luxurious and the drinks are flowing - well, who else does the money in the bag they gave her and what she wins on the slots belong to? On top of that, with the hefty wage she's being paid, she might just be able to get her finances back in the black and move into an apartment where there are no prying eyes.Along with her unfortunate colleagues “Teeth” and “No Hair” and the surly taxi driver, George, who always seems to be the only one on the block, frequently providing her with unwanted advice, Davis soon finds herself in more pickles than she can handle. From being ensconced in the lap of luxury, then hovering over an endless succession of toilets in a maid’s uniform to casino host assistant, the dead bodies suddenly begin to pile up, and it’s not long before she finds herself in the clanger, accused of attempted murder. Unfortunately, her new persona doesn’t allow for her to contact her family but thankfully, her love interest and landlord, Bradley Cole, comes to her rescue after she makes the one phone call she is allowed and together they try and figure out the complexities of the case.It’s taken me a while to get this one to the top of my reading pile and I’m so glad it eventually got there because Gretchen Archer has created a sassy, witty and engaging character in Davis Way who I could so easily relate to. Written in first person from the point of view of Davis, this gives the reader greater insight into her motivations as well as justification for her actions, as she speaks to us in a conversational manner whilst sharing her innermost thoughts and memories using snappy humour and a few doses of sarcasm.Gretchen’s writing style is relaxed and easy and makes for fast-paced reading as we turn the pages in anticipation of solving the mystery alongside Davis. She also nails one of the elements of fiction down to a tee – that of showing and not telling. I was really quite in awe of her writing and would like to share a few examples with you:“I gave them a nervous smile, crossed the quiet room, and stepped outside, where I was met by a blast of winter. January only looks like June on the Mississippi coastline. The difference is the icy, wet wind whipping off the Gulf, and this entrance to the Bellissimo was two feet from it.”“Shoulders back, wig held high, I made my way through the middle of the casino. I had three cell phones riding inside leather on my right hip; their weight and placement reminded me, as my sister had earlier on the phone, of my pistol-packing days. Meredith had grown up at mother’s knee, learning how to sift stuff. I had cut my teeth on my father’s lap, learning how to keep a gun oiled. And it was a good thing that the bag was full of AT&T and not Smith & Wesson, because one of them went off.”“The next ten minutes of my life are a blur. I got a hold of the grip, only intent to scoot it out of the way, but honestly, I couldn’t help myself. I hefted it up, groaned with pleasure at the cold, hard defense of it, immediately dropped into a Weaver stance, trained in on an imaginary bad guy across the dark room, and putting about as much pressure on the trigger as a cotton ball would, blew a new door into [the] otherwise solid wall.”“She looked at me as if my last marble had just rolled out of my head, across the floor and out of the building.”“We stepped over to a thick bundle of multi-colored cables coming out of a steel box that I couldn’t have wrapped my arms around.”Entertaining and light-hearted with an original twist that Gretchen doesn’t reveal until she’s ready, this is a great addition to the cozy-mystery sub-genre and I’m looking forward to reading the next in the series, Double Dip which was released in January 2014.

Ich kann mich meiner Vorrednerin nur anschließen: Ab etwa der Hälfte dürfte der durchschnittliche europäische Leser Verständnisprobleme haben. Ich habe öfter gestutzt, zurückgeblättert und den Teil gesucht, der mir eine plötzliche Wendung der Ereignisse doch noch erklärt hätte. Es wirkt irgendwie, als ob die Autorin ab der Hälfte nur einfach schnell fertig werden wollte. Die durchschnittliche amerikanische Amazon-Wertung von 4,5 Punkten bei über 170 Wertungen und das Lob von Janet Evanovich scheint mir da aber ein klarer Hinweis darauf zu sein, dass amerikanische Leser/innen nicht automatisch über die selben Logiklöcher stolpern wie die nicht-amerikanischen.Tipp: Wer ein Fan von Stefanie Plum ist, sollte sich vielleicht lieber Jana DeLeons Bücher anschauen. Und auf jeden Fall immer im Original lesen!Double Whammy ist für nicht-muttersprachliche Leser ab einem B2-1 Level geeignet.

Für ein Erstlingswerk gar nicht mal so schlecht. Ein guter / ungewöhnlicher Plot etwas abseits vom Einheitsbrei. Die erste Hälfte des Buchs, in der die Protagonistin ihr Leben als "undercover" Spionin im Casino beschreibt, ist witzig und spannend. Mit ihrer Verhaftung (ca. in der Mitte des Buchs) wird die Story für mich etwas unglaubwürdig. Ich weiß, das Rechtssystem der USA entspricht nicht unserem, aber was hier beschrieben wird(i.e dass die Dame 56 Tage in der USA im Knast in Einzelhaft sitzt, ohne einen Anwalt zu bekommen) ist dennoch für mich unglaubwürdig. Trotzdem, habe das Gefühl, dass diese Autorin wachsen wird, deshalb 3 Sternchen von mir.