Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer

Review by Mirah Welday (mwelday)

I know you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover but what about making an initial judgment based on its cover combined with the title?  When I saw the title of this book I had to take a second look.  When I looked a little more closely, I saw the image of Agnes (the short-ish dark hair and glasses reminded me of yours truly!) with flamingos and bullet holes in the background and I had to give Agnes and the Hitman a chance.  What I got was a wild, somewhat neurotic, mob tale complete with hitmen, wedding planning, flamingos and attempted dognapping.

I decided to listen to this audiobook last week while traveling for work…it was going to be a somewhat long, tedious drive so I thought something fun and light would be just what I needed. I was right; I thought it was fun with just enough of a ‘serious’ family storyline woven throughout to keep it from being ridiculous.

Agnes has had some issues with previous fiancés…I’ll just say there was mistrust and frying pans involved.   Joey is her best friend…and an ex-mobster.  Or is he really an ex-mobster?  And who is this mysterious Shane who Joey sends to protect Agnes and her dog Rhett?  Bring on two controlling mothers trying to take over a wedding, mob tales, missing money, and a little love (and/or lust) and you have some laugh-out-loud entertainment.

Sandra Burr is the narrator, and overall, I think she does a great job keeping the story light and the variety of accents (from South Carolina to New Jersey) fun.  My only complaint on the narration is in the editing and production of the character’s thoughts…the vocalized thoughts sound like Burr is in an echo chamber and the volume decreases quite dramatically.  I had to listen to the entire audio book a little louder than I would have liked so I didn’t miss these vocalized thoughts.

Have about 12 hours on your hands and need some fun, lighthearted entertainment?  Give Agnes and the Hitman a try.