Agnes and the Hitman, by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer

[rachelmanija]

Back from a trip, back to reviewing everything I read. Amnesty on stuff I read while I was away, though I read this one on the plane.

Agnes is a southern food writer with a history of whacking cheating boyfriends over the head with a frying pan. While preparing to host a wedding at her house, a dognapper invades her kitchen and gets whacked over the head with a frying pan. An incredibly tangled farrago of hijinks ensues, including but definitely not limited to a hot hitman named Shane, a lot of mobsters, a hidden bomb shelter, and a pair of flamingos.

I love Jennifer Crusie's solo romances, but had previously failed to get into her co-written books. I made a more determined attempt at this one, finished it, and realized that there was a reason I had failed to get into her co-written books.

This is kind of a strange book on its own, and a really strange book if you're familiar with Crusie's other work. A lot of it is really, really funny in the usual Crusie style, and she's often tended toward baroquely complicated plots with large ensemble casts and thriller elements. What Bob Mayer apparently added was a bunch of very standard-for-thriller action sequences, even more baroquely complicated plotting, a lot of gross male gazeyness which is the opposite of how Crusie normally writes, and off-putting graphic violence.

This produced a book that sometimes plays the violence seriously and is a pitch-black comedy, and sometimes doesn't and is a comedy with thriller aspects. It's also got a ton of "bitch" and "whore" and "slut," mostly played straight - again, not what I expect from Crusie. For me, the result was really off-putting and also was the first Crusie book I've ever read in which I didn't like the characters.

I see it has acquired the dreaded "a novel:"

Agnes and the Hitman: A Novel

Comments

[nestra]

I don't remember if I read this one or another co-written one, but yeah, it did not work. It was a chapter of Crusie, then a chapter of the hero spouting off facts about his guns and ammo. Very disappointing.

[nestra]

Looks like the one I read was "Wild Ride"? I remembered the amusement park, but not the fact that it was paranormal.

[sartorias]

Wow, I didn't remember any of the male gaze stuff, or the slut shaming. All I remember is the food! And the villain's terrible car.

I wonder if I'm inured to a lot of that, having read so very much of it during formative years. Kind of like commercials, blatting away in the b.g.

[rachelmanija]

The food was indeed excellent!

[sholio]

Wow. That sounds like an unfortunate mismatch of styles and interests.

[sovay]

What Bob Mayer apparently added was a bunch of very standard-for-thriller action sequences, even more baroquely complicated plotting, a lot of gross male gazeyness which is the opposite of how Crusie normally writes, and off-putting graphic violence.

That sounds both unpleasant and unnecessary.

[swan_tower]

And it makes me wonder what led to the collaboration -- what alchemy Crusie expected to happen between her style and his, and what audience would be interested in the result.

[rachelmanija]

I assume they figured she was great at romance and he was great at action, so they'd get a great romance with action. The problem was, Crusie by herself was actually already good at action, in the sense that she had exactly the right amount and style for what she was already writing, so Mayer wasn't really adding anything. Or rather what he was adding was neither necessary nor good.

[mme_hardy]

I used to be friends with her, and I dimly remember that they bumped into each other somewhere, liked each other, and decided to collaborate. Though I have a migraine today, it was years ago, and in general you shouldn't trust my memory.

"Used to be" in the sense of "haven't kept up with each other" not in terms of "broke it off".

[trascendenza]

It's been years since I tried to read one of their collaborations, but I think you've hit the nail on the head for the sense of dissatisfaction I had when I finished. And I didn't even remember the sexist language, ugh.

[mme_hardy]

Yeah, I do NOT like her collaborations with Mayer.

[skygiants]

I actually enjoyed this one -- the slapstick absurdity was enough to pull me through the rough patches, and I found Shane the hitman genuinely more likeable than a lot of the more standard Young Republican Who Just Needs To Learn How To Love protagonists in Crusie's lesser works -- but I tried another one of their collaborations and it fell so flat for me I apparently did not even bother to write it up.

[derien]

Is "a novel" something people feel necessary because they expect that some of the audience might get confused and think it's reporting?

[sienamystic]

Yeah, I think both (I think there are just two?) of her co-written books just don't mesh at all, and you end up with something that is so tonally wrong that I almost found them unreadable. I think there was fun food stuff in this one but I can't remember for sure. I also have a vague memory that these collaborations were very good for him - they turned out to be his best-selling works because of the romance market being what it is. I should go dig and see if my memory is correct.

[carbonel]

This one didn't really work for me, but Don't Look Down (another Mayer collaboration) -- while still having a certain number of predictable thriller tropes -- was sufficiently enjoyable that I reread it after first "reading" it as an audiobook.