A Southern Fried Mystery
2 total works
It's another Fourth of July in Dacus, South Carolina and the carnival fright house isn't impressing Avery's 7 -year-old niece Emma. That is, until the leg falls off of a chainsaw-wielding mannequin. Emma discovers a human leg bone protruding from the wizened limb.The next day, Avery joins her sister Lydia and her brother-in- law at a faculty picnic up on the mountain. The festivities are interrupted when one of the faculty wives disappears off the waterfall.Between the owners of the fright house wanting Avery to help them get reopened before they miss out on the holiday crowd, and the widower's new lady friend insisting that someone safe- guard his financial interests, Avery has her work cut out for her. She finds herself following the money as she pieces together a very cold case and a very cold-blooded murder.Cathy Pickens' signature wit and verve are in full force as she spins the most enjoyable yarn yet in this delightful Southern cosy series.
A spring day brings attorney Avery Andrews a new case. Fran French comes from Atlanta looking for her friend Neanna, who's more like a sister to her. Neanna went to Dacus looking for information on the unsolved murder of her aunt Wenda, and now she's missing.Twenty years earlier, Wenda's body was found posed on a memorial bench in the cemetery, her packed luggage at her feet, as if ready for a journey. When Neanna is found in her car, dead from a shot to the head, the police want to call it suicide. Fran insists it's impossible that Neanna killed herself and urges Avery to help her prove it.While Avery is sifting through Neanna's and Wenda's confused past and present, her office mate Melvin Bertram is befriended by a trio of ghost hunters who arrive in search of ectoplasm from the long-dead. The trio, christened "the ghosters" by Avery, hope to talk Melvin into investing in their TV pilot, oblivious to the fact that someone is baiting them with increasingly ridiculous ghost sightings. In no time at all, the ghosters are having altercations with the resident biker gang and with Avery's private investigator. Let no one say life in Camden County is uninteresting.In this latest in Cathy Pickens's Southern Fried Mystery series, Avery explores the nature of family--the ones we're born into and the ones we find--and learns about the haunting power of the past in the process. "Hush My Mouth" offers an original blend of humor and mystery, peppered with quirky characters and boasting a decidedly Southern flavor.