A Dose of Murder  
By Lori Avocato

     For those fans of the Stephanie Plum series that go into mourning after finishing the latest book because the wait for the next one is excruciatingly painful, let me introduce Pauline Sokol.

     Lori Avocato in "A Dose of Murder" brings us a very humorous story about Pauline Sokol, a nurse with severe burnout who decides to make a career change. Her gay roommate Miles helps her find a new job working for one of his relatives at the Scarpello and Tonelli Insurance Agency. She is hired to be an insurance fraud claims investigator even though she has no idea how to conduct an investigation. Pauline is immediately assigned a case to prove that Tina Macaluso, who is receiving compensation for a back injury, has submitted a fraudulent claim.

     While investigating the case, Pauline runs into a number of interesting characters, many of them she knows personally either from living in the neighborhood or from nursing school. Pauline meets Jagger who is also an insurance investigator who is extremely handsome but is mysterious and dangerous. Pauline's problem is that she can't stop thinking about Jagger and he seems to show up at unexpected times

     Jagger offers to help Pauline with her case if she is willing to go undercover to aid his investigation. Of all things, Pauline goes undercover as a nurse (so much for the burnout) for the Orthopedic Medical Group where Tina's husband works as well as Pauline's on-again off-again boyfriend.

     The laughs and dead bodies come fast and furious as the investigation heats up. If you're looking for a fun, easy read, and a good laugh this is the book for you. "A Dose of Murder" is a wonderful debut mystery which I highly recommend and look forward to the next book in the series.