2019; 326 pages. Book 3 (out of 4) in the “Murphy’s Luck” series. New Author? : No. Genres : Humorous Adventure; Magical Realism; Cozy
Fiction. Overall Rating : 8½*/10.
It’s a bad day for the CIA. Two of their operatives, a husband-and-wife
team, have been captured in the jungles of Colombia.
Worse, it wasn’t the Colombian
government that captured them, it was one of the local drug cartels. So getting the agents back won’t be a matter
of political negotiations; it’ll be paying out some excessive ransom demand.
The drug cartel thinks they
have the upper hand, but actually they’ve made a bad mistake. The CIA is hoping to persuade their agents’
son-in-law, a man named Murphy Drummer, to join their black-ops team in a daring rescue attempt. He’s not a CIA operative. He’s something much more dangerous.
Murphy’s a walking, talking
jinx for anyone or anything that gets near him.
Adios, drug cartel! Your days are
numbered!
What’s To Like...
I liked the settings in Murphy’s Luck 3: Curse vs. Jinx: Eureka, Kansas
and Bucaramanga, Colombia. There are two
main storylines: Murphy’s attempted extraction of his in-laws, and his
7-year-old daughter Phaedra’s upcoming birthday party. Phaedra apparently has inherited her
father’s “cursedness”, and it was fascinating to see how her classmates and
teachers coped with that.
There are a bunch of new
characters in both plotlines to meet and greet, and Benjamin Laskin does a
wonderful job of developing them. The
two drug thugs, the genius Esteban (he claims to have an
IQ of 171) and the brawny Big Nacho provide
lightheartedness to the tale, as does their bad-to-the-bone Jefe Rufino Guerrero.
The helicopter pilot Frank and the femme
fatale Siegfried (or
whatever their names are this week) imbue the rescue tale with
thrills and spills, with a dash of romance thrown in. And Hannibal, Millie, and Dumb-Ass are all
hilarious!
Subplots and running gags
abound, including buried treasure, voodoo curses, rolling R’s, and untied
shoelaces. The author’s writing skills
are such that these things enhance the story, not distract from it. There’s also a bunch of “conversational
Spanish” phrases (including one cussword),
most of which you can suss out for yourself.
The endings to the two main
plotlines are over-the-top, but fun to read.
They both border on being hard-to-believe, but hey, this series focuses
on being uplifting and warmhearted, not gritty and real-to-life. I liked it that things worked out for all the
characters, whether they be good, bad, or in-between.
Ratings…
Amazon: 4.6*/5, based on 79 ratings
and 22 reviews.
Goodreads: 4.57*/5,
based on 42
ratings and 10 reviews.
Excerpts...
“But you know, it does beg the question—why
do we get captured so much of the time, honey?
Is it possible we are a couple of bungling agents?”
“It only looks like bungling to the
untrained eye,” Danny said. “Bungling is
one of our most useful skills. And
besides, would the director have sent us after the ninety-ninth-largest cartel
in all of South America if he didn’t think we were a couple of terrific and
badass special agents?” (pg. 11)
“Murphy, we had a deal! I help you find your wife’s parents, and you
help me find the lost treasures of the Ancient Sumerian mariners. And look. Here your in-laws are. I kept my side of the bargain.”
“Frank,” Dana Daley said, “you found us by
accident. You never intended to help
Murphy. It was all a ruse.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Frank said. “It still counts.” (pg. 258)
Kewlest New Word ...
Otorhinolaryngologist (n.) : a specialist in
disorders of the ear, nose, or throat. (Jeez, I thought it was a made-up tongue-in-cheek word when I read this.)
Kindle Details…
Murphy’s
Luck 3: Curse vs. Jinx is priced at $4.99 at Amazon right now. The other three books in the series go for
the same rate. Benjamin Laskin has
several other series in e-book format; those books are generally in the $2.99
to $4.99. price range.
“I think our goose
is cooked.” “Great. I’m starving.” (pg. 2)
As is the norm, the use of
profanity is light in Murphy’s Luck 3: Curse vs.
Jinx. I noted just two instances
in the first half of the novel, both referring to the human posterior. The Spanish cussword appears at 85%. I didn’t notice any typos or punctuation
errors, which is also impressive.
One of the acronyms, MRAP, had me stumped, but googling revealed it stood
for a Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected
vehicle. Now you know.
The budding romance between
Murphy and a female character had me a bit perplexed, since this is a Cozy Adventure
and Murph has a wife and daughter back home in Eureka. To give further details on this would be a
spoiler.
I’m reading this series in
order, and this third book kept me completely entertained. I love the overarching principle examined by
this series: what do you do if discover you’re a walking bad luck charm? Book 4 is on my Kindle and I think it’s the
final book in the series. I think I’ll
be reading it shortly.
8½ Stars. One last thing. At one point an accidentally fired Hellfire missile hits a luxury yacht off the Colombian coast. Survivors are seen floating in the sea, clinging to wreckage. Despite being written in 2019, this felt like an amazing bit of foretelling based on similar events off the Venezuelan coast earlier this year. Is Benjamin Laskin prescient?
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