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Marie Astor

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Catching the Bad Guy (Janet Maple Series Book 2) Kindle Edition

by Marie Astor (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.1 1,465 ratings

Book 2 of 5: Janet Maple Series

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Janet Maple and Dennis Walker make a good team: she is a top-notch white collar crime investigator, and so is he. Both Janet and Dennis are thrown in for a loop when Janet’s treacherous snake of an ex-boyfriend, Alex Kingsley, is appointed as their new boss, and the case that was supposed to be the highlight of their careers is dismissed for lack of evidence.

To make matters worse, Alex is asking Janet to get back together, and the one man she wishes would ask her out sees her as nothing more than a coworker. Janet’s love life soon becomes the least of her worries, as she begins to suspect that Alex’s rekindled interest in her is driven by ulterior motives. She is determined to get to the bottom of things, but she can't do it alone.

Together, Janet and Dennis team up to solve a tangled white collar crime web that leads to powerful politicians and corporate executives. Armed with their keen instincts and skills, Janet and Dennis are bound to succeed. There is just one glitch: both are attracted to each other, and both refuse to admit it. Will Janet and Dennis solve the biggest case of their careers or will their attraction to each other get in the way?

Catching the Bad Guy is book two of the Janet Maple Series, but it can easily be read on its own.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Marie Astor delighted me with her mystery and romance. I rooted against the bad guys and cheered for the good as they fought for justice. Marie's heroines are so real you want to sit down and have a drink with them and her heroes will captivate you. I can't wait to see what they are up to in the next book!"

Kathleen Brooks, USA Today Bestselling Author of the Bluegrass Series

About the Author

Marie Astor is New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author.

Marie is a die-hard romantic, which is why she loves writing romantic suspense and contemporary romance. In her spare time, Marie enjoys being adventurous out-of-doors. She often gets new story ideas while she is hiking up a mountain or trying to avoid bumping into a tree while skiing.

Join Marie's mailing list at marieastor.com to receive updates on Marie's new book releases and events.

Books by Marie Astor:

Janet Maple Series:
To Catch a Bad GuyCatching the Bad Guy
Bad Guys Get CaughtBad Guys Don't Win

Sinful Business Series:
Thirsty for PaybackBaiting Trouble
Standalone Contemporary Romance Titles:
This Tangled Thing Called LoveLucky Charm
Smitten at First Sight
A Dress in a Window (a short story collection)

More books by Marie:
Over the Mountain and Back (a young adult fantasy adventure novel)

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00CSCEHWA
Publisher ‏ : ‎ (May 14, 2013)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 14, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 703 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 258 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #159,287 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,484 in Mystery Romance
- #5,433 in Women Sleuths (Kindle Store)
- #6,429 in Women Sleuths (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.1 1,465 ratings

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Marie Astor

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New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Marie Astor writes fast-moving plots with smart heroines and hot male leads. In her spare time, Marie enjoys being adventurous out-of-doors. She often gets new story ideas while she is hiking up a mountain or trying to avoid bumping into a tree while skiing.

Whether you're looking for a fun read while on vacation or just want to escape reality for a few hours, you'll find it in Marie's light romantic mysteries and contemporary romances. Marie loves hearing from readers and always answers all of her emails personally. Join Marie’s mailing list at www.marieastor.com to be the first to know about Marie’s new book releases and events.

Books by Marie Astor:

To Catch a Bad Guy (Book 1 of the Janet Maple Series) - romantic suspense

Catching the Bad Guy (Book 2 of the Janet Maple Series) - romantic suspense

Bad Guys Get Caught (Book 3 of the Janet Maple Series - romantic suspense

Bad Guys Don't Win (Book 4 of the Janet Maple Series) - romantic suspense

It Doesn't Pay to be Bad (Book 5 of the Janet Maple Series) - romantic suspense

Thirsty for Payback (Book 1 of Sinful Business Series) - contemporary romance / romantic suspense

Baiting Trouble (Book 2 of Sinful Business Series) - contemporary romance / romantic suspense

This Tangled Thing Called Love - contemporary romance about searching for love

Lucky Charm - contemporary romance about love, luck, and friendship

Smitten at First Sight - contemporary romance about the power of love

A Dress in a Window - a collection of short stories about love, serendipity, and fate

Over the Mountain and Back - young adult fantasy adventure

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5

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Ginny

Romance and Suspense Continue in Book 2 of the Janet Maple Series

Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2013

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Original review posted on GinsBookNotes .com

I enjoyed getting to revisit Janet Maple and Dennis Walker. To be honest I enjoyed this book even more than Book 1. I don't know if it's because I'm familiar with the characters and they feel as if they are old friends or if it's the story line. Either way, I liked it!

Marie has a way of making the bad guys, like Alex, somehow redeemable towards the end. They are still people you can't stand but by the end there is a little spark of hope that maybe, just maybe, they might turn into a decent person at some point in the future.

The personalities of Marie's characters are well developed and as you get to know their history you begin to understand why they act and react the way they do. I also like that they are growing and changing. The Main characters, Janet and Dennis, are engaging and relatable. I think Janet is becoming more confident and Dennis is losing a little of his ego as the series goes on.

In book 2 I learned more about the world of white collar crime and what it takes to catch and put away the bad guys. I also enjoyed getting to experience great characters develop into even greater characters. At the end I felt a sense of satisfaction because the mystery was solved and anticipation because I know that there are more bad guys, romance, and fun in Janet and Dennis's future. I can't wait to see which bad guy they take on next!

7 people found this helpful

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magicmarv

3 in one Review for Janet Maple series. Overall OK series, but if you don't like typos, you may want to think twice about buying

Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2014

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3 in one Review for Janet Maple series.

To Catch a Bad Guy was free, and probably the best of the series for the least amount of typos. It had about 11 typos but does give a nice introduction to Hedge Funds and what they do. She talks about "shorting" but never by the proper name for it. She seems to intimate shorting is illegal but it is not. Shorting has caused the demise of many companies, and indeed was one of the primary reasons for the failure of one MAJOR Bank in 2008, even though it had been placed on the "No Short" list by the feds. In that case "Insider Trading" was proven which is VERY much illegal (and the author talks a bit about that as well) and the Dept of Justice never pursued charges against one company in particular who admitted to "Insider Trading" in court.

Anyway, I was happy to see that through this book, she is trying to open the public's eye's to these activities as shorting SHOULD be illegal but it is not.

The author should have researched these issues a bit more as shorting is not illegal as she portrays.

What was very NICE to see is that unlike many authors I have read, she actually understands punctuation and knows that sometimes the use of a colon or semi-colon is appropriate. It was refreshing throughout all these books to see correct punctuation for the most part.

I found the language of the attorneys a bit stilted though, and it really made those characters seem a little unbelievable. Even attorneys use contractions in their speech. At first I thought she was not quite sure about the use of contractions, but we do see her using contractions in other parts of the book. Perhaps she just thinks attorneys don't use contractions and don't speak like "everyday people"?

The book had a nice story line and I enjoyed it, therefore I bought the next book:

Catching the Bay Guy.

This book got a little worse re typos. There were about 28. At times the author seemed to lose track of where she was in the story. Characters are at a wedding that is the Bostoff Wedding, but she talks as if the event is something else. I found another such passage in her next book, where it seemed they were at one wedding but turned out to be at another. The author can be confusing at times, so that you have to go back and carefully re-read 5 or so pages to figure out what is really going on, and in both cases I never could figure out how she could seem to be talking about one thing, when she was talking about another. She needs to work on this as there is nothing more irritating than an author seeming to lose the audience by confusing issues, and having to go back and re-read several pages of the book.

Still, I enjoyed the characters and the story lines so I went on to the third book:

Bad Guys Get Caught.

This book was by far the worst one for typos, racking up a whopping 45 or more. I had notes to myself about stilted language. Characters need to be believable, and the stilted language detracts from their believability.

None of these books are "just cannot put it down" books, but that was fine with me as I had a big project I was working on, so a book I could easily put down for a few days was fine with me. I usually prefer books that I simply cannot put down, BUT those can also interfere with your life :-).

Husbands are not always happy when a book is SO intriguing that you can't put a book down to cook their dinner.

Overall these are decent books, and I would not let the typos stop you from buying the books. They are not as intrusive as it sounds on paper, but since I keep track of typos as I read, and make comments as I read in order to write thorough reviews, it was a bit annoying for me to have to stop so often to make a note of the typo or word that was incorrectly used.

For most people, it is not bad enough to be distracting or stop reading the books-but if typos drive you crazy, and if a few words here and there used incorrectly drives you nuts, then this may not be a good series for you.

This author really needs to get a professional proof reader though. If she currently has a proof reader, or a publisher who is supposed to be doing that, I suggest she change to a different company, as they clearly are not doing a good job.

I wish this author well, she shows promise. If she wants to continue charging for her books (although they were pretty cheap, when I buy a book I expect it to be written without mistakes, or at least not so many).

The typos got worse with each book, suggesting that she may have been under a deadline.

I have noticed lately that the first FREE book authors list, are usually their best in regards to the plot and also typographical errors. This suggests that they really work hard on the first one to draw you in, but they need to keep that standard up, or they will soon lose the audience they are trying to attract.

Will I read this author again? Perhaps. It would depend on whether she starts using kindle unlimited for Prime members. I simply read too much to pay for books all the time, and do seek out new authors and authors who at least have a few of their books listed under the Prime program.

Unfortunately I don't have time to leave reviews for ALL the books I read. :-(

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

J.C. Prins

Readable, But Annoying At Times

Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2016

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This book resolves various plot lines started in Astor's first book, "To Catch a Bad Guy." Dennis Walker and Janet Maple are still seeking to nab David Muller. In addition, the mystery behind Janet's dismissal from the D.A.'s office is revealed and her ex-boyfriend, Alex Kingsley, becomes her new boss again. While following the exploits of Janet and Dennis is enjoyable enough, there were many problems with the writing. The book needed better editing in that there is much repetition of Janet's angst over being attracted to Dennis when ithat attraction appears not to be reciprocated. The exact same thoughts are repeated, at length, more than once. The story could have been much shorter and less rambling. The writing sometimes seems to be comparable to a high school creative writing assignment, with some truly laughable word choice errors. For example, early on, Janet muses that one could "exercise the devil with holy water." I had an image of the devil on a long rope running around a paddock being chased by someone with holy water. I expect Astor meant "exorcise." Later on, Astor write of "the warmness of breath." Again, I was pulled out of the story to wonder about wo d choice. How about "warmth?" Errors of this type occurred so frequently that I hat restating in the thrall of the story was difficult. It just became annoying. Finally, the dialogue was often juvenile, sounding more like middle school banter than conversation between adults. All in all, while I liked being able to tie up all the loose ends of the earlier story, the book was something of a chore to read. Not awful, but not r ally good either.

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Kindle Customer

Romance, intrigue and suspense!

Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2017

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Marie Astor sets the stage and develops the plot and characters to keep your interest throughout the book. It is very difficult to put down this book until you finish it. Dennis and Janet with Pete's help are trying to catch the financial bad guys. Janet is dealing with her new boss who happens to be her ex-boyfriend. This book is full of intrigue and suspense with romance. It was a great read, and I believe you will enjoy it also. Happy reading!

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Top reviews from other countries

Pierrebleu

Irritating, but....

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 5, 2020

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Great story, well set out, with excellent details on each character.

The relationship between the main characters Janet and Dennis was irritating, in fact infuriating as they each second guess the others thoughts and feelings - incorrectly of course and a bit formulaic. The lack of trust makes one wonder why they are together as a couple. In particular Jane’s insecurities are frustratingly irking.

The desire to catch the bad guy is admirable even if it does illustrate a dislikable trait in the characters leading one to feel that the only really decent person involved is the third person in the team that tasks themselves with beating the baddies, Peter Laskin. Laskin is a bit of an insignificant player, not only at work but also in his own mind, and he’s left in the air at the end of this story. I hope he gets his rewards in the next book in the series, which I am about to start reading.

Worth reading. You will get involved with the characters and will them to be successful. Go for it.

Jen

Yes!!

Reviewed in Canada on December 9, 2018

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Love the author and series!!!

Amazon Customer

Enjoyed the characters and shared their adventure

Reviewed in Canada on November 1, 2015

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Light reading. Enjoyed the characters and shared their adventure.

Fantasy Reader

Catching the Bad Guy

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 27, 2015

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Although slow to start (and spent too many pages updating readers on background) I really enjoy the story line and characters in the books.
I especially like Janet, a girl with morals and ethics, yet displaying normal insecurities and vulnerabilities.
Janet investigates white collar crime for the treasury with co-workers Dennis Walker ( a man who she has history with and loves from afar), Peter Laskin and Ham (the boss).
She was poached to work for the treasury when she helped bring down her previous employer when she learned they were involved in an insider trading crime. However, although it seems that they have all the evidence they need and a water tight case to succeed, the case against the main criminal David Muller gets thrown out. To add assault to injury Ham is given forced retirement and Janet's old boyfriend (and unpleasant boss from the DAs office) Alex becomes her boss.
Dennis and Janet think something is really fishy and set off to investigate.

Shepherd Haven

Another medicore book in the series

Reviewed in Canada on February 5, 2016

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Read both 1 and 2 in this series. Was hoping book 2 would improve but still as mediocre as the book 1. Easy light read but nothing too exciting about it. Book 2 has a more sexual content than book 1 which did not add anything to it at all. Both books have anticlimactic endings. Not interesting enough to continue reading others in this series.

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Catching the Bad Guy (Janet Maple Series Book 2) Kindle Edition

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