Executive Retention

(no rating)
Sedona O’Hala returns for another exciting mystery as she finds herself in danger of losing her job at Strandfrost. When Steve Huntington offers her a chance to assist him in another corporate mystery, she hesitates but agrees to help him by going undercover at Acetel - a company with quite a bit of business but not much money to show for it. Sedona’s job is to find out where all the money is going.

In the midst of everything, her sister-in-law is about to have a baby and desperately needs Sedona’s advice on how to handle her boss. Not to mention that Sedona finds herself quite attracted to Steve, as well as his brother Mark. Things get pretty dicey as she can’t distinguish the good guys from the bad guys.

This story has it all – mystery, twists, and even a dash of romance. This is the second book in the Sedona O’Hala Mysteries. The first was Executive Lunch, which I also enjoyed very much. This book develops the characters even more. Maria E. Schneider is well on her way to becoming a favorite author with her creative, clever and quirky stories and characters.

After working with him on a previous contract Sedona O'Hala should know better than to accept a dinner engagement with Steve Huntington. Especially when he wants her to leave her current managerial job at Strandfrost to take up another undercover one at Acetel services. There are rumours rampant about mismanagement at Acetel and Steve needs Sedona to become one of the employees and find out what is really going on. Their dinner where he is to tell her all turns into a disaster when two goons turn up looking for Steve and he makes a quick exit leaving Sedona to pay the bill.

Just as Maria's first Sedona O'Hala book EXECUTIVE LUNCH struck a chord with me, so did EXECUTIVE RETENTION. Someone appears to be reducing the company's profitability, and not even retrenchments are restoring it. I am very well aware of the pre-occupation with the balance sheet. I thoroughly enjoyed the plot of this latest offering.