Published: October 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-0399584770
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Format: Print
Obtained via: Publisher
Reviewed by name and email address: Gina myreviewbooks@aol.com
FIVE HEARTS
It’s been a relaxing autumn for the Ducote sisters An’gel and
Dickce when they receive a rather strange missive from a long-time family
friend, Mary Turner Catlin. Instead of calling, emailing or texting she’s sent
an actual letter! And Mary Turner is
pretty young to be resorting to such an old fashioned, yet time honoured way of
communicating. It seems there are some
strange goings on in her antebellum home in Natchez. Always ready to help a friend, the sisters
along with their ward, Benji, head off to Natchez. There they are greeted with a story that sure
sounds like the house is haunted. Strange things are happening—cold spots on the
stairs, objects moving and electricity going off for no reason, just to name a
few. Not ones to believe in other
worldly happenings the sisters set out to find out just what is causing these
strange events. Before they can really
dig into what is behind these unexplained matters several people show up
unannounced—not one but two rather disliked cousins and a self-proclaimed
psychic. Things go even further awry
when one of the residents is found dead in their bed. Despite having been involved with several
previous murder investigations, the sisters aren’t at all sure if this is murder,
justice from the other side or a simple natural death. With strangers in the house and a number of
antagonistic parties the sisters find themselves in the middle of yet another investigation…but
is it really murder?
I love Miranda James' Southern Ladies Mysteries. They are such a fun and clever off-shoot of
his Cat in the Stacks series starring Diesel the Maine Coon cat. These feisty seniors stand on their own
especially with how they are ready to up and travel to where they are
needed. James brings his own brand of
creativity to this series, as he does with Cat in the Stacks by including
Peanut the dog and Eudora the kitty into the stories. They are not token characters just to draw in
animal lovers, but have their own roles to play in the stories. They add depth to how the sisters go about solving
their mysteries, such as in his latest, FIXING TO DIE, when An’gel and Dickce
rely on Peanut and Eudora’s feline and dog talents to sense things that often
go right past our humans. While he could
have taken the easy way in writing this series by having the sisters solve
crimes in Athena where Charlie Harris and Diesel are located, after all, they
are from the same town, James has the sister traveling to different
locales. It would be easy to have them
stay in Athena where James “knows” the town well, but he treats readers to not
just different cities, but gives a bit of their history in telling the stories.
James also delves into some subject areas others may struggle with and does it with class and style. These subjects aren’t tossed in just to be PC, but are an important part of the story. Of course, FIXING TO DIE is a cozy so it has some fun characters, quirky moments and a good mystery to solve.
This is an objective review and not an endorsement of
this book.
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