Dangerous Women by Mark de Castrique: a Book Review

Age really is just a number in the second installation of the Secret Lives series. Part political thriller and part comedic clash of smart women at very different points in their lives, Dangerous Women is as witty as it is engrossing, and reminds its readers not to underestimate anyone—not even the landlady. Many thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark and Poisoned Pen Press for the copy to review.

It all starts with a botched attack resulting in one dead law clerk and another lost to a coma, all topped off with a cover-up that does more damage than damage control. Enter Ethel Crestwater, a boardinghouse stewardess in her mid-seventies, and her college-aged, distant cousin Jesse Cooper. The pair might not seem like much at first glance, especially in conjunction with this type of scandal and intrigue, but between Ethel’s record as a former FBI agent and Jesse’s tech-savvy brain, they might just be everyone’s best chance at getting to the bottom of a plot that’s stuck its fingers in way too many pies: including, but not limited to political giants, a cunning assassin, the Chief Justice’s own office, environmentalists, and ruthless players with outside interests and too few altruistic motivations. Luckily, these ladies have a number of sharp skills and surprises up their skills, plus just the right amount of moxie to pick this fight. Dangerous Women indeed.

I haven’t read the first Secret Lives book, but if it’s anything like this one, I might need to backtrack to it sometime soon. That being said, if other readers were to dive right into this tale, I doubt they’ll be at all confused or disappointed. Mark de Castrique has an apparent gift for knowing when to lighten the mood and when to let it crash down on his readers’ shoulders for maximum effect. And where I could see (and certainly have in the past) this kind of writing style fall flat or even give an otherwise engaged audience extreme whiplash, I found that the balance between serious and snarky, stone-cold and heartfelt, was so nuanced that it both kept me on my toes and helped me settle into a narrative rhythm that naturally progressed throughout the novel and alongside the facts of the plot.

One area I will say I thought was somewhat lacking in this book was the individualized character development. From the get-go, we’re introduced to a slew of important characters and tasked with keeping track of them while the action unfolds. To be clear, I think this approach fits in just fine with the mystery and suspense genre as a whole, but I could certainly see where the author might also lose some readers who are not as familiar with it or who prefer a smaller cast they can get to know better. For all that we see these characters endure and overcome—and even when they get their asses handed to them—we actually come away from the story not knowing much about them personally, which I felt was something of a wasted opportunity. I, for one, would love to delve deeper into Ethel’s closet and see what kind of skeletons she’s got tucked away behind her housecoats.

For fans of the plucky heroines featured in Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries series and the covert mechanics outlined so intricately and yet so succinctly in Robert Bockstael’s Willow’s Run, Dangerous Women is an invigorating, gratifying page-turner to add to your TBR pile this new year.