In John Morris’ new novel, Morgan Somerville can’t imagine living anywhere but Aspen: the skiing, the parties, his garage band. When his landlord unexpectedly dies and leaves him the dilapidated duplex in which he has lived a carefree existence, Morgan decides to fix it up and sell the other half.
This is his first mistake. Beautiful Risa moves in, wrongly accuses him of killing her dog and sues him for one million dollars. His inept lawyer says despite being innocent, Morgan will never win the suit. He is left with three choices: win a $2- million golf tournament, discover Risa’s deep dark secret and blackmail her or make her fall in love with him. Desperate to avoid losing everything and having to leave Aspen, Morgan tries all three options. At the same time.
This book grabs you with the first sentence: “So you killed her dog, stuck it in a pot and buried it in the snow and she caught you.” Then it takes off like a shot. Fast paced, with snappy writing, plenty of humor and crazy plot twists, the story fits nicely into the commercial contemporary fiction genre.
Yes, the action sometimes defies reality, with cars vaulting over dumpsters and helicopters landing on roofs. And no one could possibly be surrounded by so many beautiful women, crooks, and crackpots. Additionally, the abrupt ending leaves the reader with several unanswered questions; a final chapter to close out the action would have made this a better book. But the characters are charming, the writing witty, and the one or two plot disconnects are easily disregarded. For those readers who can disregard reality and simply dive into the action, this is a quick, entertaining read.
