Big Boned by Meg Cabot Avon, HK$ 112 Meg Cabot's books may be lively reads but they are also very unsatisfying. Her third offering in the Heather Wells mystery series is no different. Never mind that Big Boned takes less than three hours to read; it is so trite it gives chick lit a bad name. Our protagonist, a former teen pop star who is a college employee and student, has solved two murders at New York College's Fischer Hall (nicknamed Death Dorm), so the last thing she wants is to be involved in further bloodshed. Wells is more interested in romance, this time with her remedial maths instructor Tad Tocco, a man she fancies so much she will even go jogging with him. Perhaps the attraction has something to do with the fact teachers and students aren't really supposed to date. Or it may be because she wants to attract the attention of her neighbour, Cooper. Just after Tocco hints that a marriage proposal is in the offing, Wells' boss is shot in the head. This means our heroine must once again turn sleuth. Cabot, on her website megcabot.com, promises a fourth volume in the series. One can only hope it is an improvement on the third.
