Plain Jane Brown

Book excerpt: Jane hasn’t left Canada since her honeymoon thirty-five years ago. Now she is fifty-six, her husband has left her for a younger woman, and she is on her way to Cuba to try to “get her groove back,” as her friend Mavis put it. That is, if she ever had a groove to begin with. But when a mysterious package gets planted in Jane’s purse at the airport, she finds herself at the centre of a shady exchange between a mysterious (and very sweaty) Canadian man and some unsavoury Russian agents. Unsure of who around her she can trust, Jane does her best to figure her way out of a dangerous situation—using skills learned from her favourite fictional heroine and her own surprising knack for intrigue. And maybe she just might enjoy her beach vacation while she’s at it. In between car chases and building sandcastles with a handsome widower and his three charming children, Jane has the opportunity to think about her life going forward. Many of her dreams fell to the wayside decades ago when she became Mrs. Larry Brown. Who is she now? Is she Janie Monroe, the woman she was before she got married? Is she Jane Fonda, Jane Russell, Jane Valdez? As her circumstances become more dire, Jane must ultimately decide what kind of woman she wants to be: one who sits back and lets other people push her around, or the heroine of her own life story.