In the seventh book in the Domestic Equalizers series, I
CAN'T MAKE YOU LOVE ME, BUT I CAN MAKE YOU LEAVE, has-been
country music star Darla Denman is ready to make a
comeback. She's just about broke, and the best gigs she's
been able to get include a telethon taking place in
Midland, Texas. When her tour bus breaks down just outside
of Salt Lick (a fictional town near the very real Midland),
Darla meets Edwina and Debbie Sue, two hair stylists who
have found themselves in the middle of so much crime that
under the sign for the Styling Station -- the shop is in a
defunct gas station -- they have placed a sign for the
Domestic Equalizers detective agency. Darla approaches the
detecting duo about appearing in the show as back-up
dancers after the ones that had been on the bus take off,
but she turns out to need their help in far more serious
matters when Roxie Denman, Darla's opening act and her
agent/ex-husband's current wife winds up dead on her
dressing room floor, making Darla the obvious suspect.
Cash -- the pseudonym for two collaborating sisters who both
live in Texas -- writes with energy and enthusiasm, and
humor abounds as the plot bounces between the mystery and
the various characters' relationships with husbands and
ex-es. Most of the characters are likable, especially the
two detectives who are well developed, with a solid
friendship, despite being two very different people.
However, what we see of Roxie, who is cold and cruel, makes
it hard to care that she's been murdered or to have a
desire to see her killer come to justice. You keep
reading, though, because you want to see how Debbie Sue and
Edwina are going to get Darla out of jail, and because the
writing pulls you along.
Darla Denman, the former Queen of Country Music, has
trouble on her hands. First, her career ain't what it used
to be - she's gone from big arenas to run-down bars and
first-class jets to fourth-class buses. Second, that
fourth-class bus has plum stopped working just outside of
Salt Lick, Texas, and sure enough, there's barely enough
money to fix it. Third, someone has gone and murdered
Roxie Jo Jenkins, her ex-husband's new wife and her
current pain-in-the-you-know-where opening act.
Now Domestic Equalizers Debbie Sue and Edwina are on the
case. These two best friends, hair dressers turned private
eyes, are determined to help the singer they idolize while
staying out of heap of trouble they normally find
themelves in (and can't you just hear their put-down
husbands laughing at that?).
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