“Zany, scary, and hilarious…
I loved Sharon’s first book about the Bargain Hunters’ Network, so I was overjoyed to get my hands on this next volume in the series. Be prepared for a slight change in direction, folks. Where the last book was a cozy reflection of small-town life, this one is an overloaded Las Vegas thrill ride - with Ginger and her friends at the centre, of course.
Ginger’s husband Earl, together with the Bargain Hunters, sets off for the town of Calamity to display his genius at the Inventors’ Expo in the Wind-Up Hotel. The girls hope to snag some treasures at the World’s Largest Garage Sale. But things prove difficult right from the start, beginning with lost baggage, delayed flights, and an overbooked hotel with faulty airconditioning.
We soon embark on a ride both hilarious and shocking, involving jewellery theft, a missing squirrel and a missing cat, kidnappings, romance, nasty debt collectors, ex-filmstars, and a dead man in a teddy-bear suit. Ginger has an amazing propensity for getting into dangerous situations, but is helped along the way by tent-city dwellers, a Vegas all-night wedding chapel, a policewoman with a chronic dieting problem, and her furious friends armed with a golf cart.
There is much here to ponder. While Ginger and her friends try to track down the murderer, they are held up by excessive blog comments, lying squirrel owners, false identities, buckets of ice, ex-wives, the famous garage sale, and a difficult gym receptionist. Each of our protagonists has a solid lesson to learn in Calamity, whether it be life’s priorities, the value of trust, missing the kids, dealing with attraction, or how to get to heaven. Even Cynthia the policewoman comes away with an improved quality of life, thanks to Ginger’s cat.
The action barely stops to let you breathe. If they all aren’t trying to find each other, they are escaping deadly danger, sneaking up on bad guys, rushing around in the dark of the night, or grabbing a coffee on the way to the current emergency - catching up on sleep is something hard to come by in Calamity.
I enjoyed this read as I did the first book, but I share the characters’ relief that they are safely on the way back to Montana. What a ride. Thanks, Sharon…”
