–Synopsis–

Three vivacious senior ladies know how to defeat the monotony of everyday life. They are inquisitive and thrive on walking into danger. When a distinguished Professor hires them to find his fugitive son, why surely, they accept the job. And for a handsome fee they will travel to Russia on a covert operation.

–Review–

This is the first book in which I was asked by the author to review so I would like to begin by thanking Dee Tezelli for bringing The Red Hatters Espionage to my attention.

This is a multi-POV story written mainly through the eyes of the three main ladies who are all members of the Red Hat Society. One of my favorite aspects of this book are the qualities that are based on reality, the Red Hat Society being one of them. I had to look it up, but this is an actual group of women who get together and share in camaraderie. The colors and rules are the same as described in the book, minus the undercover crime solving work of course.

The main mystery plotline is also seated in some reality as it is based on the story of Edward Snowden. He was an NSA intelligence contractor who leaked similar classified information as the person of interest in this story. It is crazy to me how some people considered Snowden a hero while others deem him a traitor. You can gather similar opinions of the whistleblower in this story.

Two things about this book that I believe hurts the overall enjoyment is the short length and the consistent grammar errors I noticed. This book is only 100 pages which for a mystery/thriller, I felt the overall pacing was incredibly fast. Too fast to really feel a connection to the three ladies nor any of the people connected to the case. Everything felt of little to no consequence to me since it was as though everything was happening to a stranger on the news. Some of the leads the ladies begin to follow happen off page as well so I felt I was missing out on certain aspects of the case.

While I did not count each and every grammar and writing error I noticed, I did count past ten. For a 100 page book, having even ten issues like this, took me out of the story even further. That being said, I do believe English is not the author’s first language so I am giving more grace with these issues.

Overall, I believe with some extra editing, both with the pacing and grammar wise, I believe this could move up on the rating for sure. I thought the whole idea of having a sort of secret spy network of ladies over the age of 50 was very entertaining. I would be curious to experience some of the other cases these ladies found themselves entangled in.

Once again, thank you Dee Tezelli for entrusting me with my honest opinions about your book!

♦♦♦

–About the Author–