Just Add Salt

Written by Jinx Schwartz

Narrated by Beth Richmond

Hetta Coffey, a globe-trotting engineer with attitude, a penchant for trouble, and a yacht, is back, and this time she is steering us into hot Mexican waters. Miffed that vacation plans with her chronically absent boyfriend Jenks Jenkins have gone awry, she accepts a job in Baja. So what if she and her friend Jan are spectacularly unqualified to take her yacht on a thousand mile cruise in the eastern Pacific Ocean in the middle of hurricane season? Hiring a handsome, if somewhat fishy captain for the trip might keep them off the rocks, but probably won t do the same for her future with Jenks. Meanwhile, a little eye candy on board can t be all bad. Hetta’s unmanageable independence impels her to tackle the very profitable, if environmentally and politically incorrect project south of the border. True to form, her irreverent nature and disregard for danger soon swamps her in a sea of inconvenient bodies, illegal aliens, a pesky whale, and a menacing Mexican machinator. And without her usual arsenal of firepower. Set sale for Baja Mexico s Magdalena Bay as Hetta Coffey leads us once more into a morass of intrigue that will keep you laughing, breathless, and wanting more. To quote Lord Byron, Hetta would much rather sink beneath the shock than moulder piecemeal on the rock.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Books in Motion
• Release date: Feb 15, 2009
• ISBN: 9781605482538

Reviews for Just Add Salt

[leslie398 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Some big factual errors and the ditzy main character combined to make this a book it was a struggle to finish. The author didn't seem to do any background research at all; below are a few examples:More than once in the book comments were made about the whales in the eastern Pacific heading north while it was November! The whales travel SOUTH from the Artic to winter in the Baja area. Since whales play a crucial role in the plot, this is a whopper of a mistake. Another puzzling error was the comment that the hurricane turned left to head straight for the coast. Hurricanes & tropical storms move north (from the warm tropical waters) so the Baja coast would be to the right and the open ocean would be to the left. Maybe the author is from the eastern U.S. (where the coast would be on the storm's left) but then why set her book in California or not do her background research?I might have been willing to overlook these sort of errors if the story had been a good one but it was only OK. I might have given the story 2.5* if there hadn't been these gross mistakes. The so-so plot combined with the lack of understanding of the eastern Pacific made this into a loser for me.

[mtbearded1_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

34 of 75 for 2015. OK. This ain't great literature, folks, but immensely enjoyable. I'd previously read another of the Hetta Coffey mysteries, which got me in the taste for more. East, quick, enjoyable read, with a bit of history and local Baja California color thrown in. Add that Hetta lives on a yacht, with all the day-to-day mischief that that can entail, and you've got the makings of a pleasant evening or two with the kindle propped on your thighs. If you're looking for light and frivolous, with a soupçon of danger and sexy if very human characters, give Hetta and Jinx Schwartz a try.