A Date You Can't Refuse

This page-turner of a mystery, narrated by Deanna Hurst, will keep listeners enthralled. Wollie Shelley takes a job as a "social coach" for MediaRex because the FBI will guarantee her that her schizophrenic brother has a place in a federally subsidized halfway house if she infiltrates the company. The company's owner, Yuri Milos, has connections to Eastern European politicians and mobsters, and soon danger engulfs Wollie. Hurst's understated narration deftly moves between genders, international accents, ages, and voices, making all the characters personable and realistic. Hurst adds realism to Wollie's fascinating soap opera of a life as she faces each dangerous situation and deadly scenario. S.C.A. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

January 5, 2009
Wollie Shelley—reluctant dating expert, graphic artist and fledgling spy—goes undercover for the FBI to investigate MediasRex, a California media training company, in Kozak’s wild fourth caper (after 2007’s Dead Ex
). The company’s owner, Yuri Milos, hires Wollie to be a social coach and dating surrogate for such clients as clownish Zbiggo Shpek, a Moldovan heavyweight boxer. Wollie’s FBI agent boyfriend, Simon Alexander, is alarmed, even if her three-month gig will pay $50,000, since Yuri has dangerous Eastern European political connections. Inside MediasRex’s Calabasas compound, Wollie learns that the previous dating coach, Chai, a former America’s Next Top Model contender, was killed in a car accident, though Chai’s boyfriend insists she was murdered. Kozak keeps the laughs and chills in bewitching balance as Wollie uncovers the secrets of Yuri’s extended family—and suffers a first-time dating consequence in the surprising denouement.