This is the first in the "Southern Sisters" series. It has glowing review snippets that, after I read the book, I decided must refer not to this particular book but to subsequent ones in the series -- George is an Agatha Award winner, but not for this book. The story was interesting, but the characters weren't quite real to me. Plus the characters were kind of stupid -- I mean, if someone tells you they saw someone murder someone, would you not call the police, take the witness home, and all go to bed? And then decide on a leisurely drive over to the police station some time the next morning? There was no good reason for this, other than an obvious need for the author to make the plot go a certain way to get the characters to a particular scene for the climax. Sheesh. The other thing that bugged me was that the main character does not solve the mystery -- she is utterly clueless the whole time -- and on top of that ends up having to be rescued at the end. You don't even get to see the bad guys being caught or anything -- it's all neatly summed up in retrospect by the other characters.

At the same time, I have the second book sitting here, and I enjoyed the first one enough (given that she eventually wins an award for one of these) to give her a break - this could be the very first book she's ever written, and in lots of series the first book is uneven and they get better from there. So I will try the second one, too. Parts of it were very funny, so it will be interesting to see where she takes it. I also liked the fact that the main characters were women in their sixties who are fun and funny.

Released on Monday, August 23, 2004 at Belle View Shopping Center in Alexandria, Virginia USA.

I left this at the BB&T ATM.

I just found this book in with some donations at the library where I work. It was like meeting up with an old friend! I am passing it on to the book sale people. Maybe I'll hear where it ends up next!