What a breath of fresh air. Unapologetic, earthy, a full scope heroine. If foul language doesn’t upset you. If a hard drinking six foot three heroine is long overdue. If you crave the sort of life sting that rejects hearts and flowers but gives you humor and a clear eyed view of this world. Boy are you in for a treat. Candace Starr is out of prison and manning the counter at the E-Zee market. A proposal to come out of retirement and do one more hit is tempting but not enough to put her life in another stranglehold. Added to her woes is the reappearance of the cop who put her away. It is this cop’s partner with an offer to let her know who killer her dad that forms an unlikely alliance and reckoning with her past. I hope this is a series to come.

Candace is an unusual protagonist for sure and the plot line in this well crafted novel sometimes runs over the shark but it's still a fun read. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. When you're looking something a little hard boiled.

An engrossing and entertaining hard boiled that kept me hooked till the end.
A solid mystery, an interesting cast of characters and background made me liked this story.
A good read, recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

★ ★ ★ 1/2 (rounded up)
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
---
When a book is named for a scheme to rate pain from insect stings, you know it's not going to be a feel-good kind of read. C.S. O'Cinneide delivers the kind of book you'd expect from that title and readers are the beneficiaries.

Candace Starr is the daughter of a hitman who followed in her father's footsteps. She spent a few years in prison, and now released, she's trying to retire. Her days are full of drinking, sleeping with anyone handy, drinking some more and then occasionally manning the till in the convenience store below her apartment.

But her name is still out there (among people who know hired killers, anyway), and a potential client approaches her wanting her daughter's boyfriend (a low-life drug dealer/user) eliminated. But Candace is trying to retire and the target it seventeen. And that's just not something she can do.

But someone kills him and Candace is worried that she'll be a suspect (for fairly obvious reasons). So when homicide detective Chien-Shiung Malone asks her to consult for the investigation—she takes the opportunity (Malone offering information about her father's killer doesn't hurt).

Candace is smart, acerbic and tries really hard to be apathetic. Malone is smart, driven, and tough. Put the two of them together and you've got a great combination—this is definitely the beginning of a beautiful friendship (assuming they live that long)—emphasis on "beginning." I thoroughly enjoyed watching the interplay between the two and the establishment of their relationship.

We also meet a few other cops—some seem pretty cool, others are focused on bringing Candace down (whether she's guilty of whatever they're suspecting her for). Not to mention people from Candace's world—bartenders, waitresses, other hitmen, Candace's surrogate family, and biker gangs. Candace is starting to not fit into their world as much as it's clear that she doesn't belong in Malone's. In between are friends, classmates, parents of the victim and other associates. There's a lot of pain and suffering (in various forms) going on with every character we encounter.

The hunt for the killer has more than the requisite twists and turns—and by the time the true villains behind everything are exposed, I was surprised. I was kind of write with one of my theories, but even then I was wrong—and even more wrong about all the details that were revealed in the closing pages. O'Cinneide's plotting—and the reveal it all led up to—were rock solid and as intricate as you could hope for.

It's a fun ride, a clever read, and Candace's perspective on crime, family, and loyalty make this a high-spirited read. I'm struggling (and failing) to come up with a way to describe the gritty, but entertaining; dark, but not oppressive; witty, without being facetious feel to this book. Candace (and her voice) is sort of a hybrid of Huang's Cas Russell, Ford's Teagan Frost, and Rucka's Dex Parios (without the superpowers or super-genius abilities). And even as I write that, I can see the problems with the comparisons. That's as good as it gets for now. Undoubtedly, about 20 minutes after this posts, I'll hit on the way I should've said it. Hopefully, this is enough of a flavor to tempt you to take a look at this book.

Not only did I enjoy this rollicking ride, I am definitely coming back for the promised sequel. Based on how things turned out here, it is going to be a completely different kind of story, and I'm really curious to see how O'Cinneide is going to tackle it—and hopefully a few more sequels after that. There's a great kind of chemistry at work in The Starr Sting Scale and I encourage you to sample it.

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from Dundurn Press via NetGalley in exchange for this post—thanks to both for this.

Candace Starr is a retired hit woman who is approached in the early pages by a helmet-haired soccer mom to snuff her high school aged daughter's loser of a boyfriend. Candace refuses to off a seventeen-year-old, but the boy is found dead anyway, and Candace is first on the suspect list, as the local police know very well what Candace's former career was--a family business, you might say.

The detective in charge of the case is Malone, an Asian woman who takes no crap from Candace, or from the world. Together (often against Candace's will) these two delve into the case, which has enough twists and turns for the highway to hell.

Candace's snark sends up the hard-boiled detective genre, but it's a hard-boiled for our time. Read a few pages. What you see in the opening is what you get: rough language, rougher action, the worst humans can be, and yet Candace has a core of decency and even (buried very deeply) a yearning for justice, whatever that means, that intrigued me. Malone, too, was complex, especially seen through Candace's judgmental eyes.

The last third kept me reading until the wee hours, coming to a resolution that was satisfying except for one death that really hurt. It's a wild, vivid ride, via a first person narrator whose language is as blue as it gets, her eye merciless in its observations. Yet there is that core of silver . . .

Really well done.

C.S. O'Cinneide has crafted an engrossing page turner of a read in The Star Sting Scale. Well worth the read!

Disclaimer: ARC provided for an honest review.

I went back and forth on a three or four stars. The first third of the book was slow, and our hero, Candice Starr, was very much the opposite of likable. I also wasn't a huge fan of how she viewed other women, but the narrative challenges her on that. And the book's co-star, Malone, through her actions and words, forces Candace to confront how she relates to other women.

Then we get to the last third of the book and damn it got GOOD. The ending is what made me give this book a four star. The whole thing is wrapped up neatly and satisfyingly. All the bad people got what they deserved, and the people doing their best got their rewards. It's not all sunshine and roses, but it's a hopeful end.

This book is an excellent example of taking an unlikeable character, giving them a story arc and a background reveal that changes how the reader sees them.

This book is just.... Lmao... Just a hell no... It's clunky, gets expositional when it doesn't need to and not forgetting the bigotry.

Candace is a retired hit woman who is approached by a stepford wife to off the daughter's boyfriend. The money is tempting but she decides not to do it because she doesn't like the idea of offing a kid. It doesn't even matter since the boy is found dead later and a cop, the most inept waste of skin since the mayor of townsville, ropes Candace in to try and solve the murder. And why should Candace help solve the murder of who killed Tyler Brent? Because the cop, Malone, has the info on who killed Candace's father years ago.

I kept getting impatient with the book and was really disappointed with how they treated Black people. This book should also have given trigger warnings for racial slurs and mentions of rape. There is also a scene that turned my stomach. Frankly it was as necessary as Ramsay's marriage to Sansa. Just added in to showcase brutality.

The mystery was also unsatisfactory in its solving. Candace's violent sleuthing didn't give them any results. Making me wonder why I had to endure all those pages if Malone's bungling and a phone call would tell me all I needed to know anyway.

Candace Starr, a not-so-retired hitwoman with a taste for bourbon delivers a rocking good time in this first of a three-part series. Hard-boiled crime fiction with a dark feminine twist, the action comes fast and furious, as do the witty asides. If people have even half as much fun reading it as I did writing it, then my work is done!

Candace Starr is a "retired" hit woman. (personal assassin, please!) She states,"I'm not in the game anymore...cooling my jets since prison, working at the E-Zee Market and keeping a low profile." Fat chance. Society maven Kristina Corrigan seeks Candace out. She agrees to pay Candace to "off" her daughter's boyfriend, Tyler Brent. "He is a parasite. A barnacle affixed to the hull of society with no purpose or design." "Ten thousand...delivered like I tell you", says Candace. "So much for retirement."

Candace Starr is a six foot three, unapologetic alcoholic who favors straight bourbon. She has amassed a "stunning collection of ways to kill people." Her vocabulary is crude and rude. She doesn't have friends since it is "...more lucrative to cultivate people that 'owe' her." Two unwelcome police detectives arrive on her doorstep, a small abode over the E-Zee Market.

Detective Saunders, instrumental in sending Candace "up the river" shows her a newspaper clipping. Tyler Brent, seventeen, was found down by the river with his neck broken. Saunders says it looks like Candace's work and wants to view the security tapes from the time in question, the hours when Candace was working at the E-Zee Market. Saunders leaves but Detective Malone stays behind to continue to question Candace.

Chien-Shiung Malone is a classy, tall Asian female attired in a crisp white shirt and tailored black pants. Detective Malone asks Candace to help her find out who "offed the kid" in exchange for opening the file on Mike Starr's murder. "I was inside...awaiting trial...[when they] took out my dad...I tapped every connection I had to find out who was behind his death...nobody was talking." Candace agrees to help Malone investigate the death of Tyler Brent.

Did Malone have a hidden agenda? Malone and Candace inspect the crime scene. If asked, Candace will be introduced as PI Carrie Fisher, a comic touch! Combing the surrounding area, the duo discovers a zip line near the bend in the river. Tyler's cell phone is missing. Candace needs to assist Malone while staying under the radar. If her parole officer finds out...[she could be] back in a prison jumpsuit...I look like shit in orange."

"The Starr Sting Scale: The Candace Starr Series" by C.S. O'Cinneide is the first book in a hard-boiled crime fiction series. I enjoyed the unique pairing of Candace Starr and Detective Chien-Shiung Malone. I am looking forward to the continued escapades of Candace (not Candy) Starr.

Thank you Dundurn Press and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "The Starr Sting Scale".

The Starr Sting Scale is the first in what promises to be a terrific hard-edged crime fiction series. Witty, irreverent, nasty, unrelenting dark crime fiction about a recently released hit woman with more skeletons in her closet than Davy Jones' locker. There's always a question for crime fiction fans whether a true crime fiction can star a woman or is it a ground only claimed by men. Make no mistake. At six foot three, Candace Starr is more woman than most men can handle. Somehow the author Cinneide (which by the way is the original Gaelic name for Kennedy) has made Candace as nasty violent and gritty as anyone, but she still sees the world through female eyes. Quite the accomplishment.

3.5 stars

I can pretty much guarantee you’ve never met a character like Candace (don’t call me Candy) Starr. In a nutshell she’s a 6’3” hard drinking, foul mouthed ex-con with a diverse resume. Before she went to prison, she was a killer-for-hire. Her father was a hitman & just like any proud papa, he brought his kid into the family business. Now she lives alone above the E-Zee Market where she mans the counter & bounces meth heads who frequent the store.

But it can be hard to shake your reputation. Candace is approached by a wealthy woman with a problem. Her teenage daughter’s boyfriend is a drug dealing slacker & she’d like him…um…extracted from their lives. Perhaps Candace would come out of retirement & help.

The thing is she could really use the money but…whack a teenager? Turns out her reluctance is a moot point. Candace opens the newspaper one day & sees the guy’s smiling face. It seems his body was found in a nearby ravine. Huh. Unfortunately, it brings an old nemesis back into her life. Saunders is the cop who put her away & he’d like nothing better than to send her back to prison. So he pops by the store, sure that she is responsible for his latest homicide.

It’s not a happy reunion. He still thinks she’s in the game, she still thinks the smell of his aftershave is “like being assaulted by a basket of rancid fruit”. But his partner is a different story. After Saunders stomps out, Detective Chien-Shiung Malone has a proposition for Candace. Help solve the case & she’ll tell Candace who murdered her father several years ago.

That gets Candace’s attention. She’s never been able to learn who killed her dad & the need for revenge is like an open wound. She figures all she has to do is hang around with the petite & proper Malone for a few days & she’ll have the name of her final target.

Pretty straightforward, right? Well….that’s before you factor in a couple of pretentious soccer moms, a bounty hunter, a mole in the police force & a dangerous motorcycle gang with hygiene issues (seriously, if you have access to running water there is NO excuse for eye watering BO).

Needless to say there’s much more to the story & there are a couple of pivotal twists so I’ll leave it here to avoid spoilers. What you do need to know is despite the addition of Candace’s snarky humour this is a dark, gritty, hardboiled read. There’s plenty of violence & the f-bombs fly thick & fast. Those bothered by stronger language, racial epithets and/or misogyny should walk away. I confess some of it was a bit much although entirely in keeping with the characters. Just a matter of personal taste & not a reflection of the author’s skills. It is what it is.

Two things in particular really stood out for me. One is the relationship between Candace & Malone. They’re from different worlds. But a gradual understanding & acceptance develops as they spend more time together. The other element was the final few chapters. Despite one disturbing scene (couldn’t decide whether to yell “Eeeew” or “Gross!”) there is a clever reveal that made me reevaluate what I thought I knew. Well done, Ms. O’Cinneide.

Rating this is a tough call. I think I was expecting something slightly lighter due to marketing blurbs & author endorsement quotes. If a story is well written/plotted, It all comes down to what you enjoy reading. So if your tastes run more toward a hardbitten take-no-prisoners approach to the genre, this should be right up your street.