I received this book for free from the library in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: the library
The Big Kahuna
by
Janet Evanovich, Peter Evanovich
romantic suspense in a hardcover edition that was published by G.P. Putnam's Sons on May 7, 2019 and has 320 pages.
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Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Smokin' Seventeen, Love in a Nutshell, Explosive Eighteen, Wicked Business, Notorious Nineteen, The Husband List, The Heist, Takedown Twenty, The Chase, Pros and Cons, Top Secret Twenty-One, The Job, Two for the Dough, Stephanie Plum #3 – #7, Visions of Sugar Plums, Wicked Charms, Love Overboard, Stephanie Plums, Plum Spooky, , Tricky Twenty-Two, The Pursuit, The Scam, Curious Minds, Turbo Twenty-Three, Dangerous Minds, Hardcore Twenty-Four, "The Shell Game", Look Alive Twenty-five, Twisted Twenty-six, Fortune and Glory, The Bounty, Full House, The Recovery Agent, Thanksgiving
Sixth in the Fox and O’Hare too-funny romantic suspense series and revolving around an unscrupulous yet charming international thief, Nick Fox, and the by-the-book, straight arrow of an FBI agent, Kate O’Hare, forced into partnership to tackle the out-of-bounds cases ordinary FBI agents can’t touch.
My Take
Oops, Kate and Nick are in trouble. She’s too focused on getting the bad guys while Nick revels in the chase, lol. And the expenses are wracking up!
The Evanoviches use global subjective third person point-of-view, as we view events from the perspective of a number of characters in a story that is both character- and action-driven with prose that moves along, as evidenced by the action, but it simply isn’t as compelling as previous books.
Sure climbing mountains, hiking treacherous trails, being hunted throughout Hawaiian forests, the grenades and guns, witness protection, zip line escapes, and more means there is no end to an excitement. Add in that brilliant, whacky Nick who is always a crack-up with Kate as his once-conservative foil, and you never really know what to expect. Then there’s Vicky. Hoo, boy. Good thing Richard thinks she’s a hoot! Cosmo. Oh, boy. I can only hope he doesn’t prove as useful as Jessup hoped! Eeek.
That said, I have lots of niggles in this one…well, one big one. I miss Lee Goldberg’s touch in this. The Big Kahuna feels like it was written by rote. There’s a humor, a flow, missing. Although, I did appreciate their development of the crazy people living on the beach at Peahi, ROFL.
The “sex” scenes are a mere mention, and their development doesn’t ring for me. Another small niggle is why isn’t Jessup questioning the deputy attorney general requesting that a missing man be declared lost at sea without there being any real search done?
That ending Nick came up with…LOL… Too bad he couldn’t keep some of it…
The Story
It’s state-of-the-art AI, a technology that enables machines to learn, one for which people are willing to kidnap and…or kill. And now the developer of that tech is missing and one of his investors is frantically shredding piles and piles of papers.
The Characters
Kate O’Hare is a straitlaced FBI agent tasked with handling a criminal. Former Lieutenant Colonel Jake O’Hare is retired Army Special Forces who lives to help Kate. He’s my favorite character in this, lol. He lives in Megan‘s (Kate’s younger sister) detached converted garage.
Nicolas Fox, a.k.a., “Nicolas Nacky”, Social Media Influencer Influencer, is a brilliant con man, a man of many unexpected talents, and a world-class thief.
“Rain” is a candlemaker who attends protests. “Nicolas Lodeon” is a big-wave surfer.
FBI, Los Angeles
Special Agent-in-Charge Karl Jessup is Kate’s boss who came up with the Nick Fox plan. Senior Agent Cosmos Uno is the excessively annoying desk wimp who works in the cubicle next to Kate. You have no idea how annoying that boy is, lol. “Karl Ketchup” is a field office manager.
Richard Wylde, a.k.a., the Big Kahuna, owns a Silicon Valley software artificial intelligence start-up, Sentience, who has disappeared. Hamilton is Richard’s hippie son who lives to surf and is based at Peahi, Hawaii. Victoria Wylde is his porn-actress, Instagram model wife. The third. Larry is Victoria’s photographer/lawyer.
Olga Zellenkova is the “firecrotch hottie” Czech venture capitalist, who has invested in Sentience, but not in its owner. Jasper and Horace are a couple of thugs employed by Viktor Neklan, a former head of the StB, Czech secret police.
Greg is a gamer making unsuspected millions playing Fortnite Battle Royale. Mrs Kowowski is his annoyed grandmother. Betina is the hot sexy actress who ad libs for Greg.
Hawaii
Steve and Willow own a yurt near Peahi. Mike is the head hermit who lives in a cave. Bob is a Dumbledore wanna-be and a former US Marine with a fascinating stash. Naked Gary and Naked Susan are arguing about yoga. Tanya and Grace and Stanley are more of the gossipy inhabitants of the beach.
Prague
Zhang Wei is the Chinese ambassador. Zhang Yong is the son who loves gaming.
Beth is the manager at Graff jewelry store. Angela Rook is the operations manager at the FBO. Kranos, a biotech developing cancer drugs, was founded by Irenka Radcliffe. Waterloo is an Internet security start-up owned by Peter Travis. Sarka is a waitress at a restaurant in Queenstown. Thomas Worth is the best counterprotestor protestor, and he’s putting together the asshats who include Cheryl.
The Cover and Title
The cover has a royal blue background split into subtle geometric shapes with the silhouettes of Kate in a thigh-length skirt and suit jacket and Nick in his own business suit. There’s an info blurb in white angled at the top. The primary author is in an embossed golden yellow with white highlights — HUGE while the secondary author is much tinier beneath it. Immediately underneath this is the title, also at an angle in a grey outlined silver with a similar embossing. At the bottom, angled, is the series information in white.
The title is the missing billionaire, The Big Kahuna.
