Wednesday 6 May 2015

Book ~ "Death, Taxes, and Cheap Sunglasses" (2015) Diane Kelly

From Goodreads ~ IRS Special Agent Tara Holloway can calculate tax penalties to the penny. But seeing the world of white-collar crime through rose-colored glasses? Priceless.

Tara's career comes with a lot of pros and cons - which is a nice way of saying that she's kick-a$$ in her fight against professional con-artists. And she's tough enough to deal with all the money-launderers, tax-evaders and other such criminals who cross her path ... until her own boyfriend, Nick, joins their leagues. Now all bets are off.

Nick is about to go deep undercover - and the stakes are higher than Tara could have ever imagined. It's all part of a joint task force with the DEA to bring down a powerful, violent drug cartel. It's going to take more than a pair of dime store shades for Tara to bring their dark deeds to light. Can she help Nick without blowing his cover… and ending up in harm's way herself? 

IRS Special Agents Tara and Nick are still dating after almost a year and Tara is hoping things are progressing to the next level.  Nick and Christina, one of Tara's friends who is a DEA agent, are assigned to go undercover to bring down the violent leader of a drug cartel.  They can't have any contact with the outside world without risking their lives.  Nick, though, gives Tara cell phone with the promise that he will call and text her when he can to let her know that they are okay. While they are gone, Tara is not surprisingly fearing for their lives.

In the meantime, Tara has a job to do and some cases to take care of including a lame art gallery with major write-offs, what is purported to be an animal rescue run by two crazy cousins, a con artist who is running a fake charity to elicit funds and a thief who is making withdrawals from people's accounts that aren't his.  And on top of all this, Tara keeps breaking her sunglasses and buying new ones only to have them broken!

This is the eighth book in the Tara Holloway series (I've read the previous ones) and the tenth book I've read by this author. It works as a stand alone as there was enough information from the past ones so you know what's going on.

I liked this book. I liked the writing style ... it was funny and sarcastic. It is written in first person perspective from Tara's point of view. As a head's up, there is swearing and adult activity.

With Nick and Christina away on a mission, there is more focus on Tara and we discover, as she does, how deep her feelings have become for Nick and how dependent she is on him in her life.

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