High Heeled Alibi - Sydney Ryan

** 1/2 - Bitsy is a feisty heroine (not synonymous with TSTL), but I couldn't figure out at all why she fell for Mick because he came across as a giant jerk. And I couldn't have cared less about the suspense storyline if I tried.

Halloween night found Bitsy Leigh working at the funeral home, but even on a night as eerie as this, she never expected one of her corpses to get up and start talking to her. Or that being his alibi for an assassination attempt would put her in danger of being assassinated herself. But secret agent Mick James is determined not to take the fall for this one - and to unveil the conspiracy behind it.

So - Mick is being framed as an assassin, and he has to keep Bitsy around (and unharmed by the copious henchmen that turn up) because she's his alibi. Personally, I'm not sure why people kept kidnapping her instead of just putting a bullet through her head, but I suppose that would make the plot more difficult. Anyway, since Bitsy has more sense than to hang around quietly with corpses that get up and start walking, she's a rather unwilling accomplice to all of his super-sleuth-dom - which mostly seems to involve car chases and treks through the woods rather than any form of intelligence-gathering. And because she's unwilling, he does an awful lot of holding-her-at-gunpoint. An unfortunate way to sustain a romantic relationship, and I just don't get why with all of the threatening to kill her, shoot her kneecaps and the general caveman hauling her about by the hair (which happens a LOT), she wants to do anything at all with him other than kick him in the balls.

So the romance part wasn't really doing it for me, despite Mick's golden hotness (which may have been diminished by body odor, sweat, dirt, blood and general caveman-ness). The suspense plot seemed vaguely Manchurian candidate, but there wasn't a lot of intelligence going on, so I'm not even entirely certain what was going down on that front. There were people in his own agency trying to set him up. They were constantly on the run. I couldn't even tell you the resolution to the suspense stuff except I'm pretty sure the bad guy gets shot.

So the one line summation? I liked her, thought he was a colossal jerk, and the plot is one long chase scene. Fine as an afternoon read if you like your heros alpha, but nothing memorable.

I couldn't help myself - the snarkiness in me will out, but I didn't want to clutter up this blog. If you're interested in the blow-by-blow of High-Heeled Alibi, check it out here