Pearl Jinx by Sandra Hill ****

Now I'm seeing the trademark Hill humor in this series!! Somehow, she managed to create a believable character out of an ex-Amish ex-Navy SEAL! And make it funny too.

Caleb Peachey was introduced in Pink Jinx when the Jinx team hired him for a deep sea dive treasure hunt. He was hitting on heroine Veronice "Ronnie" - and was making inroads! Ok, she couldn't let go of her love for Jake but was tempted.

In Pearl Jinx, the Jinx team went into Amish territory to do a cave treasure hunt on private property. Theoretically they were looking for cave pearls, but there was also a rumor of potential gold hidden there as well. The team was required to hire a local history authority to accompany then - Claire, who was an expert on the local Native American tribe, the Lanni Lenape. She was there to make sure anything of historical interest uncovered was protected. But Claire also had another agenda that slipped out when she met Caleb - her biological time-clock was ticking and his genes were looking real good...

Well, that was because of the thunderbolt-producing chemistry between them - which Caleb was hell-bent on ignoring. He had been shunned by his large Amish family for the past 17 years - as it turned out, it was for something actually done by his twin brother Jonas. Because he had no contact, he had no way of knowing that Jonas was also shunned because he admitted his guilt after Caleb left. Jonas now lived in the area as a Mennonite, a widower with 3 children.

Among the characters are John LeDeux and his Tante Lulu from Louisiana, Ronnie and Jake, and Mark Franklin, an Iraq veteran who lost an arm, and Caleb's younger sister Lizzie who wants to be on American Idol. While I felt like Tante Lulu was again over the top, this time it worked better for me and I found myself laughing along. Tante Lulu and Claire did their best to connect with the Peachey family to get them to see the error of their ways in shunning their sons for 17 years. And in the end we had a happy ending for Caleb and Claire, Ronnie and Jake, Mark and Lily, with good news for Lizzie and also for Jonas.

By the way, there were pets but I decided they didn't rank as Notable Pets.

4 stars.