Under the Gun (Underworld Detection Agency Chronicles) by Hannah Jayne Edition: Mass Market Paperback Price: $7.99
Still No Character Growth -2.5 Stars, February 5, 2013 This review is from: Under the Gun (Underworld Detection Agency Chronicles) (Mass Market Paperback) "BOOK DESCRIPTION FROM AMAZON Release date: February 5, 2013 | Series: Underworld Detection Agency Chronicles Quick thinking and loyalty have taken human Sophie Lawson a long way in the UDA - along with a healthy dose of magic immunity. But when her old boss Pete Sampson asks for help after a mysterious two year disappearance, she's determined to find out what high placed demon has put two ruthless werewolf killers on his tail. Of course, sucking up to her icy vampire department head and negotiating a treacherous interoffice demon battle are the kind of workplace politics that could easily get a "breather" way worse than reprimanded. And sexy fallen angel Alex is doing whatever it takes to heat up Sophie's professional cool and raise feelings she's done her best to bury. Too bad their investigation is about to uncover the Agency's darkest secrets...and powerful entities happy to sign one inquisitive human's pink slip in blood."   In this fourth installment of Hannah Jayne's series, we find that Sophie has not grown one little bit. I've read them all and I just don't get it. She is still that annoying, non-kick butt, fainting, crying, multi-male lusting heroine (and I use that word loosely!) that she was the last few books. As an aside, the covers are STILL annoyingly wrong! Ms Jayne is making the same mistake that several other fairly well known authors have done. She has found a style for the heroine which readers loved -at first - but are getting annoyed with when it goes on too long. I initially LOVED the idea that Sophie was not a `Mary Jane' character, that Sophie made mistakes and fumbled her way through the past installments, but now it has gone on too long. Think of the books by MaryJanice Davidson and her Queen Betsy or Janet Evanovich and her Stephanie Plum series. Think of how far these authors got with never allowing their characters to grow, to mature, to change. In this book we see her boss the werewolf Pete Sampson come back from the supposed dead. Now there are killings that appear to be committed by werewolves and supposedly she only wolf around is Pete, who hasn't been being chained up at night. So we have ourselves a huge mystery. Sophie still has mixed feelings on the male issues and that may be getting a bit old. It certainly isn't going to wash after very many more books. While the book was mildly amusing, it did not have the hilarity that the first two books held for me and I wonder if I will even bother with the rest of the series. I don't want Sophie to change too much, but the fact that she is so self-depreciative and clumsy still should change. She is getting better with weapons and with having two hotties hot for her you would think that she could think a little better about herself! In this novel, I think that the secondary characters really make this book worthwhile and the mystery...not so much.