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Original Sin by Beth Mcmullen

Original Sin

A Sally Sin Adventure

by Beth Mcmullen

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  • Published:
  • Jul 2011, 304 pages
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  • Sally G. (Saint Johns, FL)
    Original Sin
    Beth McMullen is a California resident and that is all I can tell you or….shoot you.
    This is her debut novel about Lucy Hamilton; spy, stay-at-home Mom to Theo, and wife to Will a tree hugger.
    We meet Lucy crawling around her backyard looking for something or someone her intuition has alerted her senses. We learn that her paranoia is because she had been a spy by the name of Sally Sin.
    This fell a little short on the comic side for me and I was not thrilled by the flashbacks, as they seemed a little contrived and not flowing. It is a good story and has well described characters especially Ian Blackford her former handler. I think future novels will be better.
    This is reminiscent of Jane Doe on Hallmark Mysteries.
  • Jerry P. (Santa Rosa, CA)
    Too Much of a Good Thing
    This is a difficult book to evaluate. I enjoyed Ms. McMullen's sense of humor and was chuckling while I was reading it, but I reached a point where I was satiated with the incessant humor and needed a break. Since I was interested in the story, like spy novels and wanted to see how it ended, I eventually finished it. I believe this is a good first effort. This type of book is difficult to write.
  • Denice B. (Fort Bragg, CA)
    Not Original
    The promising premise just didn't deliver. "Original Sin" (same title as a P. D. James mystery) was a bit witty, but mostly it was tedious. The perils recounted in hindsight by the main character were repetitive and didn't lead me anywhere. I was hoping for a more strongly portrayed connection between Mother/ex-spy and toddler, who seemed kind of annoying and one-dimensional.
  • Diane D. (Cape Elizabeth, ME)
    Sally Sin.....Suburban Spy!
    Although it was a little slow in the beginning, this Sally Sin mystery is a fun frolic through Chick Lit adventure! It's got the everyday Suburban wife/mother involved in intrigue & espionage! There's plot twists & several loose ends that will tempt the reader to come back for more.
  • Anne M. (Austin, TX)
    Please let it be the ONLY sin ...
    This wasn't even all that exciting a "suspense" novel: I felt as though I knew what was coming every time I turned the page. The character of "Sally Sin," aka Lucy Hamilton, is fairly well-drawn, but I just couldn't really make myself care what happened to her by the end of the book.
  • Andrienne G. (Azusa, CA)
    okay debut, needs more oomph
    Finally finished the book. It started out with a lot of promise, but somewhere near the middle, the book was trying to figure out what genre it fell under. At times, it felt like a really good chick lit, and other times, it felt like a tepid book about something else. I was drawn to the character of a stay-at-home-mom ex-spy, but the story was flimsy at best. It didn't hold my interest long and I'm a fan of adventure spy stories and chick lit, alas, the book wasn't able to blend the two well.
  • Anna S. (Auburn, AL)
    Once a spy . . .
    Lucy Hamilton, a suburban stay-at-home mom who wants to stay that way, was once a spy called Sally Sin. Unfortunately for her, her former agency needs her help to lure her old nemesis out, and they won't take "No" for an answer. This very funny novel has all the earmarks of the first of a series, and I look forward to the next installment of the adventures of Sally Sin.

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