If you’re unfamiliar with The Tressa Jayne Turner mysteries (Calamity Jane, Calamity Jayne Rides Again) she’s known as Calamity Jayne…and for good reason. She’s either the cause of it, or right in the middle of it.

Cub reporter for the local Grandville Gazette, she’s onto one of the hottest stories of her career (not including that episode of the psychotic clown, but that’s a different matter altogether.) She’s got a tip from homecoming queen nominee Shelby Lynne Sawyer that bestselling, reclusive author Elizabeth Courtney Howard is coming back to her hometown to settle up the estate issue of Haunted Holloway House. Shelby Lynne offers her help to land an interview…on one condition: she’s got to be there for the big score. How could Tressa resist? Except she’s scared to death of ghosts.

The trouble begins when she’s out at Haunted Holloway House on surveillance, and sees a pair of characters moving what looks like a coffin from a van into the house. Surely not! The calamity begins when Tressa and Shelby Lynne try for the interview. Howard’s personal assistant, Vanessa, is in the way and adamantly refuses access to the author with a litany of excuses. Undaunted, Tressa uses her secret weapon: Joe Townsend, grandfather of her almost-flame Rick Townsend. Seems Joe went to the prom with the famous author! But even that doesn’t work. Much mayhem ensues throughout the remainder of the story, including a rather embarrassing Halloween costume party at the senior citizen center, her Gramma moving in (with her large collection of anatomically correct fertility gods and goddesses), Joe and Gramma having a hot affair, a real-life ghost, and a rather heated apple race. And that pesky coffin.

There is no real meat to this book -- or the series – but this reader didn’t really care. Calamity Jayne lives up to the moniker by getting herself into yet another pickle, and I can more than relate to her attitude – she can’t keep her mouth shut to save her life, and her cutting sarcasm is right on the mark. The interaction between Shelby Lynne and Tressa is hilarious, and it’s really easy to root for these two. They’re the ultimate underdogs. Shelby Lynne is the least likely candidate to win the contest being a social outcast, and Tressa is the least likely candidate to live a normal life, but it really gives the story credence.

The sexual tension between Tressa Jayne and Ranger Rick Townsend is sweet rather than hot and spicy, but anything else would overwhelm the story and really, it’s unnecessary. This is small-town Iowa, not NYC. The hottest thing going their town is the hook-up between Gramma and Joe Townsend! Try to imagine your grandma out on a make-out date with a senior citizen Lothario, dressed as Morticia Addams. Wait…nevermind. Don’t go there.

Pure cotton-candy fun, and a great diversion from the usual Halloween-themed scare fests. Looking forward to the next calamity!

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Publisher: Love Spell (October 3, 2006)
ISBN: 0505526948
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