Spittin' Image

What a delightful time I had reading "Spittin' Image." Margaret Brownley and Lee Duran blended three of my favorite genres--mystery, romance and humor--into a totally absorbing adventure that bounced me between anticipation and surprise all the way through. I can hardly wait to see what these two authors do next.

Everybody has a double, so the saying goes. When Samantha Smith discovers hers in the form of Jayne Roberts at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, she sees more than an mirror image, she sees opportunity. Dreading her connector flight to Los Angeles and an eventual meeting with a divorce lawyer, Samantha proposes to Jayne a plan to switch places. Jayne will fly to Los Angeles and sign Samantha's divorce papers, a simple task considering the ex-husband to be is in absentia, and Samantha will take on the responsibility of sorting through Jayne's grandmother's enormous house full of belongings before "Grandnanny" is shipped off to a nursing home. A simple plan, Samantha reasons...what could go wrong? The possibilities are endless, particularly when Samantha - posing as Jayne - takes more than a sisterly interest in Jayne's half-brother, and Jayne discovers Samantha's husband...in Samantha's bed. These aren't the only factors complicating their given tasks, for it appears somebody is out to cause some bodily harm. Question is, why, and which twin is the target?Spittin' Image, the first installment of Brownley and Duran's Doubletake Series, is a wild and amusing tale ala The Prince and the Pauper. Wise-cracking Samantha is practically the polar opposite of Presidential trivia expert Jayne, and therefore a good complement to her character as far as the story is concerned. Thrown together by chance, the two bicker like sisters as their respective predicaments escalate into danger, drawing the reader into an adventure that is definitely one of a kind.

On her way to sign divorce papers, con artist Samantha Smith meets Jayne Roberts, an archivist for the Ronald Reagan Museum. Surprisingly the two could be twins. Sam tries her best to convince Jayne to trade places for a week. That way Jayne can sign the divorce papers and Sam can take care of trying to get Jayne's "grandnanny" in a nursing home. Neither imagines the trouble they get into when the plan starts to go awry. Sam's almost ex-husband Russell wants his first edition Glueman comic book that Sam has stolen from him. Sam falls for Ben, Jayne's half-brother, and Ben has feelings for Sam but thinks she's Jayne. Plus someone is stalking either Jayne or Sam, but for what? This has got to be one of the funniest, most surprising books I've ever read. I've never laughed so hard or so long at the antics of characters. A must read! -Kathy Boswell