THE B-TEAM

While trying to reunite a diamond necklace with its former owner, a vigilante ignores her suspicions about the fairness of the case, to the detriment of her colleagues in nonprofessional justice.

The B-team is an amateur investigation squad bent on righting wrongs. At least, that’s how Del’s great-aunt Kitty pitches it when she asks Del to lead the crew. Kitty recruits Dino, Del’s twin brother, and Ritz, Del’s friend from high school days, to round out the group. Kitty’s latest candidate for vigilante justice is an ex-wife who wants to recover a diamond necklace her husband reportedly got sole custody of in the divorce. While Ritz and Del are casing the joint for a planned burglary, they come face to face with someone else lurking outside. Del recognizes the man as Mac, a high school acquaintance she always wanted to get to know better. Mac may recognize Del, but by the time Ritz is done with him, he’s out cold and in no state to revisit old times. Distracted by Kitty’s repeated demand that Del and Ritz finish the job, Del’s also apprehensive. She got into this business to fight injustices, not to reunite the rich with their baubles. While Del and the rest of the B-team execute the plan, she wonders whether her instincts were right: maybe they aren’t fixing an injustice but being tricked into perpetrating one.

Less fully realized than Campbell’s last rapid read (Worst Date Ever, 2017), with a skeletal back story that may make readers feel that they’ve jumped into the middle of a series instead of devouring a stand-alone.