Single gal with large, colorful ethnic family (in this case Polish) finds herself taking on a new career she is totally inept at and working with a hunky stud-muffin who goes by one name.

But as anyone who loves genre fiction will tell you – you have to expect a formula. And really, that’s not what’s holding back A Dose Of Murder from being a notable debut. Nope, the blame here can be placed solely on our inept heroine, Pauline Sokol.

Pauline has decided that she’s tired of being a nurse. Now one would think Pauline would have figured out that the profession wasn’t her bag before she got her master’s degree. Oh never mind.

So despite being up to her eyeballs in debt, and owing her fabulous gay roommate rent, she quits her job.

But never fear! The fabulous gay roommate gets Pauline a job working for one of his relatives. Fabio (yes, Fabio) owns an insurance agency and is looking for another investigator. Pauline’s job is to follow around Tina Macaluso, and get proof that she really didn’t injure her back at her nursing job.

Naturally Pauline has no earthly clue how to go about investigating, and ultimately runs afoul of Jagger. Jagger is also snooping around Tina, but has bigger fish to fry. And while birds have more brains than Pauline does, he decides to send her into Tina’s place of employment to snoop. After all, Pauline is a nurse – so it’s perfect right? That is, until two dead bodies show up.

A Dose Of Murder is one of my least favorite types of books. That is, it would be a very good book if not the completely grating main character. Pauline is supposedly in her thirties, but comes off like a teenager playing grown-up. This girl has absolutely no clue. She’s like a bull in a china shop and worse still, when she fails miserably at something (in this case, everything) she runs to the bathroom and cries about it.

What’s that expression about making your bed and lying in it? Oh never mind.

There’s also the small matter that Pauline is the sort of woman who strings along a handsome doctor who claims to love her just so she can get the occasional fancy dinner and night of sex. Call me old fashioned, but why not just learn to cook and buy a vibrator. Oh never mind.

In a nutshell, Pauline is really hard to like. I guess her ineptness is supposed to come off as charming and endearing, but I kept wondering why the heck Jagger was putting up with her. Surely he could have found a smarter nurse. And as for Jagger, he’s an okay sort of guy, but he’s the one note cliché – the sexy, mysterious hottie the heroine shouldn’t be attracted to, but is.

The story here isn’t bad. The mystery is well thought out and the writing style makes for a breezy read. It’s just a matter of getting past Pauline, and since she carries the book there’s no way to ignore her. If you like inept heroines who flounder their way through the novel and have the required too-stupid-to-live moment(s) in the final chapters – then by all means, I cannot recommend this one more. For the rest of you, proceed with caution, take an aspirin, and get some extra bed rest.

--Wendy Crutcher