A Fool And His Monet (2016) (S. Jones #1) by Sandra Orchard. We are introduced to Serena Jones of the F.B.I. Art Crime Team. She operates out of the St. Louis Field Office. An art museum in town discovers it has two paintings missing, one being a Monet from the title.
Here there is a very nice lead character with a good supporting cast. Serene is very attractive although she don’t realize how this effects the men around her. She is smart but not brilliant and she needs a lot of help along the way. She has a mother who doesn’t want her in the F.B.I. but would sooner see her married and having babies. There is a fun aunt involved, one that butts into the investigation every chance she gets. There are at lest three potential mates for Serena hanging about. One is an older co-worker who is ex-S.W.A.T., one the very attractive manager of her apartment building, and the lest is a brother of her best friend that Serena has know forever.
I’ve said all this because I feel as if I’ve read this story time and again. A Fool And His Monet is aimed at readers of the Stephanie Plum books. The cast here are altered incarnations of those books’ characters. The story is different but you could fit this tale in with the others and it wouldn’t be too much of a standout.
That said, if you haven’t read the other series, by all means jump into this and enjoy. The story is a lot of fun, the interplay of the characters is on the prim side of things, but the mystery is enough to keep the tale going. In short, this might just blossom into something worthwhile. ( )

Loses points for the thing at the end asking readers to vote on who the heroine should be dating. Pander much? ( )

What a wonderful beginning to the series! With the characterization of Serena Jones, recently graduated and new member of the FBI's Art Crime Team, the reader tags along on Serena's first undercover assignment. On arrival back in St. Louis, we meet best friend Zoe that needs Serena's expertise as it appears paintings have been stolen from in-house storage at the local art museum. This leads introduction to Serena's family that includes her worry-wart Mother, university professor Dad, and outrageous and sleuthing Aunt Martha. Serena lives in Aunt Martha's former residence with her cat Harold. The retired English professor Sutton who makes it his mission to help everyone in the neighborhood expand their vocabulary adds another fun element. There's also a host of male characters that add a sparkle in various ways to Serena's life but especially FBI supervisor Tanner and apartment building superintendent Nate.

As some of the characterizations progressed I thought of the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich particularly thinking of the outrageous "ready-for-anything" Grandma Mazur who in this series is definitely Aunt Martha. The age old question whether Stephanie would be happier with Joe Morelli or Ranger now has me asking about Serena with Tanner or Nate.

A light fun beginning that leads me to wanting more. ( )

Wow. Gobsmacked is a good word for what I'm feeling right now. I initially wasn't super interested in this book, but saw some of my GR friends reading it, and it was free on Amazon kindle, so I thought, why not?

And boy am I glad I did! This is pretty high up there with my favorite mystery series!

For me, I find it especially hard to find clean, innocent, 'light-hearted' mysteries that suit my standard of "cleanliness". And this one totally did. I even handed it off to my little sister with no hesitation. There wasn't anything overly violent, no sexual content, romance was EXTREMELY low-key, and there is zero swearing.

I think what makes Orchard's novels is her fantastical characters. I know that's what made the book for me. Serena Jones, the MC, is completely unlike any other character or person I have ever known. With so many hilarious and endearing quirks and idiosyncrasies, I just couldn't get enough of her! Everything from her claustrophobia, to her ignorance of any romantic attention given her just makes her character so amazing. Even the secondary characters. Was there any cookie-cutter secondary characters for Orchard? No. From crazy Aunt Martha, to tough FBI agent Tanner, to apartment super Nate, to Zoe, head security at an art museum. All are so unique and fascinating.

Sandra Orchard's writing style is the other thing that makes these books for me. Incredibly witty and hilarious in her dialogue and descriptions, I found myself in stitches more than once! I could happily lose myself in a million books like this one. She balances humor, action, and heartwarming story lines all in an intriguing, captivating way.

All in all, I am so glad I picked this up, and can't wait to finish the series! I'd gladly recommend this to ages 14-15 .

CONTENT NOTE: While I would gladly recommend this for mid-teens and up, there is some things that would make me hesitate to hand this to a younger child or suggest it as a family read. Serena is an FBI agent, so there is a fair-to-middling amount of violence, gunplay, not-described-barely-mentioned murder, etc, etc. Also there is technically a love triangle throughout the series, but really, the romance is SO on the back burner, it's really not an issue. And as I said previously, even the violence isn't described hardly at all. ( )

A great new intro of a mystery/FBI story that takes place in St. Louis, MO. Good characters and a wholesome read. I'm looking forward to more from this author and in this series. ( )