This is labeled as a cozy mystery but really I think Zany is a better description. This was enjoyment from the first page and all the way through. The main character Cyd works in a travel agency run by her family and through hard work and sneaking around she has managed a trip to Atlantic City and the story takes off!! Cyd lives with her mom and about 8 other family members! Her days are spent trying to sell tours and then help Seniors have some great travel adventures (most of the time minus time in jail). There are bad guys, exotic animals, travel and an OMG Roger, quirky amusing Barry (you'll just have to read it to figure that out) and law enforcement. This book reminded me of a Goldie Hawn movie - lots of silly - great physical humor and a smart character that doesn't always get it. A fun light read with all the right, good qualities.

Hilarious take on a serious problem. The travel agency business' equivalent to bounty hunter Stephanie Plum, the protagonist is a hoot. Some of the animal details were disturbing, but I know they are all too true. I will be afraid to open my lost luggage when it is returned after a flight. I look forward to reading more by this author.

Wendall Thomas will be at will be at The Book Carnival, 348 S. Tustin Street, Orange, CA 92866 on Saturday, October 28 at 2 PM to discuss “Lost Luggage.” The first person narrative by Cyd Redondo, Redondo Travel, Brooklyn, New York, makes this a fun book to read. She describes herself as:

“the first line of defense.It’s my job to anticipate and prevent any and all travel disasters for my clients.”

We see the wide world of travel through her eyes, and we want her to be our traveling companion everywhere we go. She fills her carry-on bags with all the necessities from malaria pills and Tupperware to a compass and a cocktail dress. She barters her way through everything with travel upgrades, free dinner vouchers, and hotel reward points.

The story’s pace picks up ominously when Cyd and company head to Africa. Entanglements plague her and her senior-citizen travel customers. We share her anxiety and her concern while wondering if she isn’t putting her trust in the wrong people. Why is all that luggage getting lost anyway? Anything and everything that could happen on a sightseeing trip to Africa does happen, and we keep turning the pages to see if she will have enough frequent flyer miles to buy her way out.

“Lost Luggage” will make you wince, cringe, and question Cyd’s sanity. You will feel the tension in the African air, but you will be laughing too much to get a stress headache from the drama.

I received a copy of “Lost Luggage” from Poisoned Pen Press, Wendall Thomas, and NetGalley in exchange for my review. This is an entertaining book to read, despite the murder, law breaking, untrustworthy people, and senior citizens thrown in jail. Be careful, you might just laugh out loud as you read, and you will never travel without Tupperware again.

Laugh out loud funny, Lost Luggage, the first in a series by Wendell Thomas, is a highly entertaining mystery! Fans of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum are sure to adore Brooklyn travel agent Cyd Redondo.

Writing in the vein of Janet Evanovitch, straight outta New Jersey, Wendall Thomas give us a one of a dying breed - a travel agent. Thirty-ish but still finding it hard to break out of the family nest, Cyd Redondo specialises in arranging travel for the senior citizens in her neighborhood. She is seriously dedicated to her job and excels at wrangling upgrades and freebies. Cyd always wears stilettos and has a set of Tupperware containers in her huge handbag, useful for leftovers, travel documents and as it turns out, rescuing reptiles.
Cyd stumbles across the body of a neighbor who runs a pet shop and she and her clients get caught up in murder and mayhem. The fun starts when Cyd makes it out of the neighborhood and all the way to Atlantic City. Resourceful beyond belief and delighted to be on the road, Cyd even manages to find a little romance along the way.
Very light, and a few too many friends and relative introduced in the opening chapters, but some hilarious sequences and entertainingly sharp commentary. If this sounds like your cup of tea give it a go!

Lost Luggage is a LOL funny read. Wendall Thomas writes of a travel agent who is very dedicated to her job and her company. She knows all the ins and outs and tips of traveling. There is just one little hitch, she has never traveled herself. When she wins a trip to Tanzania and an African safari, she jumps at the opportunity. But her vacation is not the dream she had in mind. Hilarious throughout the book also highlights a deadly problem. Readers who like comedy, traveling and entertaining books should love this book. One of the best books I have read in 2017, I highly recommend it. (ARC)

Completely wild, wonderful, and wacky! I've never read anything quite like this before. I was hooked by the fourth page, but the almost non-stop madcap action only starts there. A once-in-a-lifetime African safari vacation turns into a harrowing and hair-raising race to rescue endangered animals, spitting snakes, and seniors in matching tennis visors and Skechers. Despite never having been anywhere, our funny and feisty heroine has packed for every emergency, and is prepared to handle even the most unexpected situations with courtesy, aplomb, and a healthy spritz of designer perfume. This has something in it for everyone, from the best of small-village Agatha Cristie mysteries to Janet Evanovich's wise-cracking, whip-smart single-girl-in-the-city (and her stilettos). I even picked up a few travel tips! Sure to delight a wide range of mystery fans. I can't wait to see where in the world Cyd goes next!

I loved it this was a great first read Cyd is hilarious and seeing the other side the travel agency world left me in awe. The cast of characters and the description of the exotic locations and event he hotels left me speechless. The mystery was so like nothing I;ve read before who wold have though smuggling something like that and they way they did it was was even better. This was just a delightful read with brilliant creativity on the part of the mystery and genre