Rocky Start Series by Jennifer Crusie, Bob Mayer, Jennifer Crusie

Think of the movies Grosse Pointe Blank or RED. Retired covert operatives living in a small town in the Smoky Mountains. What could go wrong? Rose Malone’s landlord and employer, Ozzie Oswald, just died and now she has no idea if she has a job or if she and her daughter, Poppy, have a place to live, and that’s on top of the arrest warrant that’s been out for her for nineteen years... moreThink of the movies Grosse Pointe Blank or RED. Retired covert operatives living in a small town in the Smoky Mountains. What could go wrong? Rose Malone’s landlord and employer, Ozzie Oswald, just died and now she has no idea if she has a job or if she and her daughter, Poppy, have a place to live, and that’s on top of the arrest warrant that’s been out for her for nineteen years. Then a stranger shows up claiming to be Ozzie’s son and tries to throw her out, so she swings a reproduction of the Maltese Falcon at him, and just as she’s about to finish him off in a rage, somebody grabs him and throws him into the street. Max Reddy just wants his boots. He’s walking the Appalachian trail with his dog Maggs, trying to leave behind a life as an elite covert operative. He’s stopping in Rocky Start, when he sees a feisty middle-aged woman swinging a Maltese Falcon at a guy who backhands her. Max throws the guy into the street and continues on his way, determined to get his boots and get out of town, even if Feisty was pretty cute. He’s been alone on the trail a long time. Some trees are looking good to him. All Rose wants to know is what’s going on, so she follows Max to the post office, no ulterior motive, honest. Except to pick his pocket to find out who he is, then he can go. But by nightfall, she’s invited him under her roof for her own protection since they're dealing with a town full of retired spies, including a sly-eyed moocher, a suspicious sheriff, a knife-wielding bakery owner, a dangerous woman who looks like a vampire, a conniving teenager, and a dog who's decided she's done with the Appalachian Trail. And Max is starting to think his dog is right. This could be the start of something dangerous. From the authors who brought you Agnes and the Hitman a new series in a similar vein. To be followed by. Very Nice Funerals. The Honey Pot Plot. less

Rose Malone is doing all right except that her daughter is struggling with PTSD, her lover is leaving her for the Appalachian Trail, and there’s a rumor that there’s a million bucks in the building she inherited which has inspired every money-hungry man in her weird little town to bring her cheap flowers and offer to search the place for her. Max Reddy needs to get back to the Appalachian Trail; it’s hard to recover from a life of covert operations when you’re in a community of ex-agents... moreRose Malone is doing all right except that her daughter is struggling with PTSD, her lover is leaving her for the Appalachian Trail, and there’s a rumor that there’s a million bucks in the building she inherited which has inspired every money-hungry man in her weird little town to bring her cheap flowers and offer to search the place for her. Max Reddy needs to get back to the Appalachian Trail; it’s hard to recover from a life of covert operations when you’re in a community of ex-agents. But that community also has a woman and her daughter he cares about more than he thought possible. If he hadn’t made it his mission to finish walking the Trail, he might stay, but he always finishes what he starts. Then Max finds one of Rocky Start’s citizens dead in a coffin, and suddenly Max and Rose are after a killer in a town where a large percentage of the population is retired assassins. There’s the funeral director, the exterminator, the postmaster, the postmistress, the honey store owner, and the femme fatale, not to mention the handsome outsider journalist poking around for a story about serial killers. And now the killer is aiming at new Rose and Max. Very Nice Send flowers. Express your sympathy. Duck. less

(This book will be released much earlier than the indicated publication date; we'll update as soon as we know for certain). Somebody is killing the women of Rocky Start, which probably seems fair since they’re all retired assassins. Well, not all... more(This book will be released much earlier than the indicated publication date; we'll update as soon as we know for certain). Somebody is killing the women of Rocky Start, which probably seems fair since they’re all retired assassins. Well, not all. There’s Rose Malone who’s trying to start her life over with herself at the center this time, once she stops her daughter, Poppy, from taking their secondhand shop online since Rose is still hiding out from the cops (nineteen years and still not in jail). She’d also like to have her lover back from the Appalachian Trail, but first, there’s this attempted assassination she has to foil. Rose is sure of only two nobody’s going to die on her watch, and Max Reddy is going to be back in time to carve the turkey on Christmas Day. Max is walking the Appalachian Trail, which has taken him longer than he’d planned due to the fact that someone is trying to kill him. And that’s not even his biggest problem. That would be the thoughts of the woman he left behind distracting him from things like surviving a snowstorm and ducking a Russian from somebody else’s past who thinks Max knows the whereabouts of a treasure Max is pretty sure doesn’t exist. But he's been wrong before. Then Rose gets serious about death prevention and Max gets back to town to find out there are new people in town, Rose’s daughter Poppy is still dealing with PTSD with a side of romance, his buddy Luke really doesn’t want to be the law in Rocky Start, and Rose’s kitchen, Rose’s smile, and Rose’s arms are home to him now, a realization that’s more terrifying than the killers in the shadows. less

A gruff ex-operative. A hiking trail. And a dog. Max Reddy has spent his career as a covert operative doing what he does completing missions, avoiding emotions, and treating every human interaction like a tactical operation. It's worked great—until he met Rose Malone in Rocky Start. She stole his wallet and his heart and made him almost human; but he’s still basically a well-trained robot with minimal social skills... moreA gruff ex-operative. A hiking trail. And a dog. Max Reddy has spent his career as a covert operative doing what he does completing missions, avoiding emotions, and treating every human interaction like a tactical operation. It's worked great—until he met Rose Malone in Rocky Start. She stole his wallet and his heart and made him almost human; but he’s still basically a well-trained robot with minimal social skills. He’s helping her renovate the old cottage in the woods across the river from Rocky Start when days of rain combined with the remnants of a storm flood the town and they are forced to evacuate. The only roads into it are shut for weeks before they can rebuild. Rose suggests that Max finally finish his through-hike on the Appalachian Trail. Max agrees. What could go wrong? Between dodging someone stalking him from his former life, building fires in the rain, talking people off ledges (literal and metaphorical), and reluctantly learning that humans are more than just “mission parameters”, Max discovers that the hardest trail to navigate isn't the one under his boots—it's the one leading back to his own humanity. Rocky Hiking the Appalachian Trail, one awkward conversation at a time. An excerpt from Bob Mayer and Jenny Crusie's next book,. Arresting Anna. , is at the end. less