cover image Southern Poison: A Jersey Barnes Mystery

Southern Poison: A Jersey Barnes Mystery

T. Lynn Ocean, . . St. Martin's Minotaur/Dunne, $24.95 (310pp) ISBN 978-0-312-38346-6

Sassy Jersey Barnes, Ocean's Southern-styled answer to Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum, believes her work for “an antiterrorism tentacle of the government” is over in her uneven second outing (after 2007's Southern Fatality ). Then her former military handler shows up at the bar she owns in Wilmington, N.C., and informs her of one more assignment. Jersey agrees to go undercover at a mobile meal truck outside the nation's largest ammunition port, nearby army-owned Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point, and gather intel. Soon Jersey is tangling with John Mason, a fanatic who's planning a terrorist act to punish the U.S. for his twin brother's death. In the meantime, the daughter of Jersey's hunky love interest, Duke “Ox” Oxendine, becomes the face for a hot new teen product, Derma-Zing (faux tattoos). While the terrorist business comes off as a little stale, the subplot involving tainted cosmetics is fresh. Jersey's relationship with Ox adds some heat. (Sept.)