X Dames

Lucy Ripken Mysteries #3

by J.J. Henderson

In The X Dames, New York writer/photographer Lucy Ripken gets lucky when an old friend calls with fabulous job offer: come to LA to work on a new reality TV show—catchily called The X Dames--featuring a shifting cast of curvaceous female athletes competing in extreme sports. Bored in New York and slightly desperate for a paying job, Lucy jumps at the chance and makes a move to Southern California. Soon she finds herself en route to Mexico's Pacific coast, to the small but booming resort town of Sayulita, location for the show's premiere event: a women's surfing contest. Gigantic surf, real estate shenanigans, and a mysterious death by drowning combine to transform the reality show into a real-time investigation of murder in the high waves. With video cameras recording everything for the upcoming premiere of The X Dames, Lucy and her pals soon find themselves deeply enmeshed in uncovering a conspiracy involving crooked real estate dealers, corrupt politicians, and an old nemesis returning from one of Lucy's earlier adventures.

In The X Dames, J.J. Henderson's third Lucy Ripken mystery, Lucy steps into a compelling tale ripped straight from today's liveliest and most popular entertainment venue, the world of "reality" television.

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery

205 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[LORI CASWELL · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dollycas’s Thoughts

While Lucy is an amateur sleuth, this is not a cozy mystery. The book has explicit language and adult themes.

Lucy Ripken heads back to Mexico after a brief stop in California with the crew of a new television reality show featuring female extreme sports competitors. The first episode covers some extreme surfing, and when one contestants dies the first day of filming Lucy knows it wasn’t any accident. With a little help from her friends she is going to prove that. While she is in Mexico, her landlord is trying to get her booted from her rent control apartment and her boyfriend is in Florida on his own adventure.

I know some sites show this as the 3rd book in the series and others show it as the 2nd. The first book was not available so I jumped in with Mexican Booty last week and this one this week. They do read well as stand alone but in this installment there were more references to things I assume happened in book 1 but the author gives us plenty of background to keep us in the loop, but it does make me wish I could read book 1.

Again J.J. Henderson pack a lot into these 150 pages. We are getting to know Lucy Ripken a little better but I think we have just scratched the surface. I love that she gets a call and goes where the job is and this time it sounds like a great opportunity and very well paying. I also liked the reality show aspect, you know when you bring a group of people together vying for a prize there is going to be drama. Unfortunately this time the drama included murder and the more Lucy digs the more suspects come to light. I was totally caught by surprise how everything connected.

I have started to get invested in these characters and the author surrounds them in a good mystery. I like that we meet new characters too in each installment. I also enjoy the way he describes the setting and action. Excellent for the reader to visualize without getting too wordy.

I originally grabbed this book when it was free and I needed n “X” book for my Alphabet Soup Challenge. I am glad I decided to read the one before this one because now I want to read them all. I have added the rest of the series to my wish list.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book because I needed a title that began with X for the ABC Challenge! I found it on Kindle for 99 cents so I was not expecting a whole lot. It was actually a cute little mystery with some romance and a couple of solid side stories.

[agnes · Rating 2 out of 5]

dnf 60%

NEVER again any alphabet challange!!

how many times in one book can you mention artificial boobs?

well, it turns out - A LOT😮‍💨😫

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lucy Ripkin is called and offered a job writing for
X Dames. This is an all female extreme sports
competition. The first part starts with a extreme
surfing contest. Seems simple enough until one
of the contestants ends up DEAD. Lucy realizes
the contestant was murdered.
Surfs up if you like death, drugs and sex along
with a beautiful setting with a variety of characters.

[Pamela · Rating 3 out of 5]

I needed a book starting with "X" for an alphabet reading challenge. This was cute - loved the Mexico setting. Decent characters. Not exactly a cozy with some of the content, but not graphic. A few editing issues with character's names being switched up. Overall, not bad.

[Kat Lebo · Rating 4 out of 5]

X Dames, Lucy Ripken Mysteries, #3
by J.J. Henderson

So on with the second book in this series that I currently have. :-) Remainder and used editions of the first in the series "Murder on Naked Beach," are available from some Amazon sellers, but nothing on Kindle, which is where I'm reading this series.

In this outing, Lucy's friend Teresa has gotten a job writing scripts for the upcoming 'reality' show "X Dames." She has been given authority to hire another writer, so she calls Lucy to see if she'd like to come to L.A. to meet the producers and get started on the series. Harry is off chasing buried treasure (literally buried, under a modern Walmart in Florida). The producers will set up housing for Lucy in L.A. and she can take Claud, the poodle she rescued on her last trip to Mexico, plus the money is good, so Lucy is in. Once in L.A. she meets not only her new landlord, but his surfing daughters. As the first segment will be a surfing competition filmed in Mexico, Lucy is able to get the older daughter, Marcia, a spot as one of the contestants. So, before even being able to properly unpack, Teresa, Lucy, and Marcia, plus the producers and rest of the TV crew are off to Mexico. Claud stays behind with Marcia's younger sister.

The rest of the story is full of intrigue, sex, drugs, backstabbing, lots of surfing, some NYC controlled rent drama, and one attempted and one successful murder. The competition has 12 competitors, 8 serious female surfers, and 4 beach bunnies hired to look great in a bikini. One of the competitors, besides Marcia, is a well known surf champ, Sandra, who wants to prove she still has what it takes. She's been living in coastal Mexico for several months, and it was her idea to film in the small town where she has been living. When the reality show becomes a little too real for comfort, it will be up to Lucy and her friends to not only solve the case, but to get home safe. But when she gets back to New York, will Lucy still have her apartment?

The writing moves along at a good pace, making it difficult to put the book down. Good editing and proofing, as I didn't spot any errors in this novel. Written descriptions of both action and location were done well. Characterizations were fleshed out and consistent. No cliff-hanger ending (always a plus where I'm concerned), although the door is left open for adventures to come.

Quick and easy read.

[Emma Wilton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn’t realize this was part of a series, but the story could still stand alone which was nice. This book reminded me of an adult Nancy Drew. It took me a while to get into it and I felt like the beginning both dragged on yet also jumped straight into the plot. Once it got into the actual mystery part I really enjoyed it, but it was tricky to keep track of all of the characters as many were introduced all at once. Overall, it was an easy read and something for me to get a few pages of before bed every night but I wouldn’t read it again.

[Linda C · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lucy Ripken is asked to co-write for a TV Reality show called X Dames which will challenge a bunch of ladies in a particular sport, winner getting $25,000. Each show will feature different women in different sports. In the finale the winners will compete in something they are all not familiar with, to be determined. The story revolves around the pilot which will feature surfing in Mexico. However, one of the surfers dies during the challenge and Lucy is sure it was murder. This is an unusual plot with lots of twists and turns. I'm not sure I cared for any of the characters enough to want to read more of the series. I would read a scene that was well done and the next scene would be a cliché or so unbelievable. Just not worth the time to find others.

[Samantha Bilan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book to satisfy the x title for my 2023 alphabet challenge. I wanted to like it. It was a short book but took about halfway through for anything to really happen. Then it was a little all over the place.

[Cornerofmadness · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this one because I needed an X for the alphabet challenge. I wasn't familiar with this mystery series and it was the first I've read with my new Kindle app. I liked that it told you where you were so I knew that there is literally no mystery until 53% in. So as a contemporary story it's 3 stars but as a mystery, it doesn't even rate.

I'm not even sure what Lucy does (that could be because this is book 3 and I haven't read the first two) but she's embroiled in a battle over her rent controlled apartment with her horrible landlord (this becomes a plot point for the last third of the novel which has literally nothing to do with the rest of it) and has a treasure hunting friend Harry. Another friend, Trish calls her up and offers her a job out in CA which she is afraid to take because the landlord will throw her out (I’m not sure how you can do that if someone is off on vacation and/or work)

Anyhow Lucy is to help write the so-called script for a reality TV show about hard core female surfers competing with each other weekly, the titular X-dames (a play on X-games). Much of the first half is about the wealthy playboy backing this project, and the sexcapades and drug use of the surfers. We don't even get out on the water until literally 50% in and finally someone dies and the mystery starts.

And ends nearly as fast because it doesn't take Lucy long to figure out the who/how/why and if you get annoyed by villains who get away with it then be prepared to be annoyed (at least until karma settles the score).

It wasn't badly written but when I read a mystery I want to see a mystery, not something vaguely mysterious half way through a book.

[Rachelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading this book and had to look at the cover to see who Lucy Ripken was. Her occupation is not described right at the beginning of the book. Her friend calls and asks her to write for a new TV show to be called X-Dames. The cast was to be female athletes competing in extreme sports with surfing off Mexico's Pacific coast as the first event.

Lucy is out taking pictures of the competition when one of the surfers goes down. She tries to help but soon is unconscious. When it takes time to wake up, Lucy suspects she might have been drugged. She sends off some of her blood to be tested. She had hoped the bloos of the surfer who went under could be tested also. The surfer dies and Lucy finds out she was drugged. She looks at the video taped so far and saves it to her computer. She sees something suspicious in the tapes. The rest of the book is about proving a crime was committed.

This is one other problem to solve, who posed as her friend to get admitted to her apartment in NY. She has been having problems with her landlord and proving she lived there would help. She has to break into her own place when she gets home from Mexico.

Lucy is an interesting character, the book I bought was a library book at one time and was hard to find. I did enjoy reading this book but would not recommend it for anyone under 18 due to language used.

[Margaret]

A little sex, drugs and ... surf! makes this not-quite-your-average cozy mystery. I liked the LA/Mexico reality show setting which allowed for a lot of sometimes over the top drama. Not bad, but I think a little more character development would make everyone seem a little more real to me. This was a nice change from the little old lady/British detective/culinary cozies that I usually pick up.

[❂ Murder by Death · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book. Doesn't exactly qualify as a cozy since there were some sex scenes that, while they weren't explicit, were a bit graphic. Still, it was a good story, well written, although one that seems to be directly tied to previous books in the series. I read this one to fulfil a reading challenge, but I might read the earlier ones if I come across them.

[Delphine Lopez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written, fun read

Good mystery to cuddle up with. Lucy is an intelligent well rounded character. This book depicts Hollywood in it's true form along with a venture into reality TV and what goes on behind-the-scenes.

[Jennifer Robb · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried to read this book but there was no hook to draw me into the story. I also felt very confused as to what was going on and could not figure out what parts were important and which ones were not.

[Jana Denardo · Rating 3 out of 5]

As contemporary fiction it's not bad, as a mystery it fails. Nothing mysterious happens until over half way through and is resolved well before the end.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is in the Lucy Ripken mystery series. The Mexican scenery and interesting characters involved in the X Dames television show make this a light read.

[Sandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a quick read. And I found the sun and surf perfect reading for a cold winter day.