The Housewife Assassin's Handbook by Josie Brown
First, you need to know that this book, and the series that it begins is farce, with great humorous moments. Donna Stone is a suburban housewife. The day her third child is born is also the day that she learns that her husband was undercover FBI and was killed by a car bomb. His boss is the one that informs her and asks her not to let anyone else know he is dead. So she spins stories about him being away on business trips. Donna is involved in all the usual suburban mother activities, PTA and driving kids to their various activities. As she begins to think about how she will manage without her husband's income, his boss suggests that she might be cut out to be an agent herself.
After training, she takes on the role of a not very bright, but sexy woman in many of her agent roles. But things change when another agent, Jack, who has a reputation for being a player, shows up at her house impersonating her husband Carl. As her fellow housewives swoon over 'Carl', she tries not to resent him for gaining the trust and adoration of her children, and for making moves on her.
But as the pair becomes involved in dealing a fatal blow to the criminal organization that supposedly killed her husband, things become trickier and it is harder to separate fact from fiction.
Each chapter begins with a housewife tip that has an edge at the end. The scenes have lots of action and suspense, and the body count damage is mostly offscreen.
I enjoyed this for the farcical aspects, and it reminded me of some of the action shows of my youth (such as Remington Steele). A fun read.
