Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: The Further Adventures of Constable Mavis Upton by Gina Kirkham

Published by Urbane Publications

Synopsis:

The laughter continues to flow in Gina Kirkham’s brilliant sequel to the wonderful Handcuffs, Truncheon and a Polyester Thong.

Our hapless heroine Constable Mavis Upton is preparing to step down the aisle with her fiancé Joe, but has to deal with her temperamental teen daughter, as well as investigate a serial flasher on a push bike. Throw a diva drag queen into the mix and readers can expect the usual hilarious Mavis mishaps that made the first book such a hit.

Revel in Gina Kirkham’s humorous, poignant and moving stories of an everyday girl who one day followed a dream.

Gina Kirkham is a hysterically funny writer, I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as much while reading as I do with her books. Her writing style flows beautifully and takes you from one giggle to the next seamlessly.

This book is set a few years after the first, Mavis’ daughter is now a young adult and about to embark on her own adventures, her father’s health is deteriorating before they can really build the bridges they so desperately need and her wedding to Joe is just around the corner.

What sets this book apart from the first is that there’s a thread of suspense and mystery that isn’t solved until the end – who is the mysterious flasher roaming the streets and why the hell has he got a doughnut on the end of his wang? Kirkham always deals with the most pressing of life’s mysteries.

We learn more about Mavis as a person in this book, it’s a very heartfelt read as well as funny – she’s learning to deal with the loss of her mother, as well as the impending loss of her father as his health deteriorates and her daughter, as she gets older and will leave to start her own life. She faces everything head on and with a great sense of humour, but you can appreciate all of the things that remain unsaid in the more serious chapters.

My favourite parts are the the interactions between Mavis and her colleagues, the banter and the ridiculous situations they find themselves in – breaking up altercations between OAPs in Morrisons and trying out new police carrier vans.

If you need a good laugh with a healthy dose of humanity, this is the book for you. You don’t need to start from the beginning of this series to know what’s going on but I’d recommend it – just so you have more to read!