Publishers Weekly
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Queen-sized investigator Josephine Fuller has an appealing (i.e., not self-deprecating) sense of humor; moreover she's comfortable with her body and confident in her abilities. In her third adventure (after Large Target and Larger Than Death), she wrestles with the murder of her ex-husband's girlfriend, angry vibes disturbing her apartment and a sleazy ex-con who's wormed his way into the heart and bed of her friend Maxine. The loosely constructed plot allows Seattle-based Josephine ample room to explore romance ("as a large-sized woman, I've developed extra-sensitive radar for men who see me as a sexual being, versus men who see a surrogate mom") and to consort with a cast of unusual and sometimes amusing characters such as ex-husband Griffin Fuller, photographer and congenital philanderer, and Isadora Freechild, lesbian and mountain-climbing author of Finding Your Vegetarian Inner Child. The murder of Francesca Etheridge, Isadora's sister and Griffin's girlfriend (and the probable cause of the split between Josephine and Griffin), provides the grist, but produces plenty of chaff too. Too many characters, too many blind alleys and some unexplained discrepancies weaken this entry in a series that has considerable promise. If Josephine's future cases offer challenges that match her size, she will be a formidable character. (July 9) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

"Of all the women's job skill centers in all the towns in all the Pacific Northwest, he walks into mine." This first sentence sets the tone for the sassy, brassy Jo Fuller's life of one-liners and emotional missteps. Teddy, the man who walks into Jo's job center, is the husband of Francesca, the woman Jo's ex, Griffin, left her for. Griff is a famed (and lecherous) photographer who became involved with Francesca when he photographed her mountain-climbing expedition. Francesca ends up dead, stabbed with one of her own mountain ice picks, and thus starts a merry chase with ex-spouses and ex-lovers turning up everywhere. New Age self-help, film stars turned politicians, and lesbian chic are affably satirized: Jo herself, a full-figured woman of the Camryn Manheim variety, has some acerbic things to say about how the world treats fat girls. This is a quick, intriguing series debut; one hopes that, in her next adventure, Jo will spend less time with her cat, Raoul, and more with Mulligan, who shares cat care and moves in downstairs. --GraceAnne A. DeCandido

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Still recovering from the gruesome death of her best friend Nina West (Large Target, 2000), plus-size heroine Josephine Fuller is somewhat queasily exploring her feelings for Nina's lover Thor Mulligan. Meanwhile, she's on an assignment for her wealthy patron Alicia Madrone, working as a volunteer at the Women's Job Skill Center in Bremerton, an hour's ferry ride from Jo's apartment in Seattle. Is the Center worthy of Madrone's philanthropy? The question is still unresolved when humorist writer Ted Etheridge appears one day, looking for one-time volunteer Lucille Meeker. Jo has a history with Ted, who's not quite divorced from mountain climber Francesca Benedict, the woman whose affair with Jo's husband Griff led to Jo's divorce. Now Francesca has lodged a complaint against the Center, claiming that Lucille has stolen her laptop computer along with various files. But when Jo decides to follow up on this accusation by interviewing Francesca, she arrives at her apartment only to find her dead, killed by one of her ice axes, as her lesbian sister Isadora Freechild flees the scene. And that's only the beginning of a morass of plots and subplots, as Jo struggles to cope with the bad vibes in her apartment (eventually cured by a psychic); the presence of unsavory Dick Slattery in neighbor Maxine's apartment; a missing Cayman Islands bankbook showing millions on deposit, and much, much more. To reduce it to simpler terms: Too many storylines plus too many characters equals maximum confusion and minimum suspense.