Lynn’s Neurotic Hitwoman series is pulling all cylinders when it comes to making Maggie insane. If she didn’t have the crazy gene from her mother, she might end up in the nuthouse thanks to her non-clinical insane, but still dysfunctional family.

Whom she now has to live with since her apartment blew up. Yikes!

When her apartment building is blown to smithereens, bumbling hitwoman Maggie Lee is forced to move back into the Bed & Breakfast she grew up in. Living with her three meddling aunts is bad enough, but it just so happens that the B&B is also occupied by a U.S. Marshal, an FBI agent, her old friend Zeke who’s on a mysterious mission, and a woman who claims she can see dead people. These aren’t the kinds of roomies Maggie wants to spend time with, considering that in order to pay for her niece’s medical care she supplements her income by killing people. Maggie avoids arrest and deals with a crazier-than-usual home life while trying to track down exactly who is blowing up the holdings of various crime families.

To make matters worse, she’s walking a precarious tightrope between keeping her mobster bosses happy and protecting her murder mentor (and almost lover) Patrick Mulligan. Aided by the warped predictions of her semi-psychic friend, her sarcastic, demanding, talking lizard and an always ravenous, dyslexic Doberman, Maggie juggles keeping secrets, unraveling riddles and protecting those she loves. Can she do it all? Or will she suffer yet another unspeakable loss?

I’ll try to keep this as non-spoilery as possible. Hitwoman #5 The Hitwoman and the Neurotic Witness is more of a novella but it packs a lot in under 200 pages. Old friends like Zeke return and upends Maggie’s life by involving her with his ghost-whispering witness which in turn gets her involved in a different shady organization. Probably not a crime family, but all-seeing watchdogs for good. So they say.

While Maggie taking out hits for the mob is entertaining, I can see why Lynn adds this new shady organization as they don’t require Maggie to kill people. They require her to defuse bombs and find missing dogs. I know, from one extreme to the mundane but it certainly adds some variety to Maggie’s life and adds more complications as they threaten her not to tell her murder mentor, Patrick, or else.

The novella is more humorous, and it made me laugh out loud several times. Right from he first page with the pets doing CPR with staying alive, and then another chapter featuring a typical Lee family dinner with an FBI agent, and US Marshall. Its short but sets things up for what’s to come.

Bumbling hitwoman Maggie Lee has discovered the sister she thought was dead might be alive. She’s desperate to find her, but all of her bosses are making unreasonable demands. Demands she can’t afford not to meet. Once again, Delveccio, the chocolate pudding loving mob boss, needs someone whacked. Her obnoxious boss at her day job insists she intervene on his behalf with her semi-psychic friend, Armani. And the mysterious organization with the power to put her almost-lover Patrick behind bars has saddled her with an annoying new partner and sent her on a mission that has gone to the dogs. With the clock ticking, Maggie (along with her snarky lizard, dyslexic Doberman and Southern belle cat) does her best to pull off every job without winding up in jail or dead…but is her best good enough?

The next book, The Hitwoman Hunts a Ghost did not involve the supernatural as I thought it would, especially after the ghost whisperer in the previous book. Much like Armani’s predictions it has multiple meanings. The ghost is literally the name of the dog Maggie looking for, but it also doubles as the ghosts from Maggie’s past that are creeping up more like her dead sister, Darlene, her sensitivity at being called “crazy,” etc.

While the previous book has things heat up for Patrick and Maggie sexually (wowzer, I was panting along with her), they become more emotionally entangled here despite the short time they have together on the page. We also get to see a different side to Loretta and hints at Templeton’s dirty dealings.

But the ending. . . the ending is quite a cliffhanger and I can’t wait to get to #7. I’m contemplating whether I should do two a year or keep going. After all there are 48 books in the series already. If I limit myself to two I won’t finish until I’m forty.

Anyway, these were entertaining and compelling continuations to Maggie’s story that confirm that her life is only going to get more complicated from here on out.