Dig

C.R. Corwin's DIG: A MORGUE MAMA MYSTERY returns another 'Morgue Mama' story to print, this telling of the newspaper archivist's discovery that her old college friend is murdered at an abandoned landfill where a dig is in progress. Suddenly the 68-year-old librarian is involved in yet another murder investigation - which turns out to be two murders and involves a trip down memory lane to resolve.

Maddy Sprowls gets to The Hannawa Herald-Union on the stroke of nine. She makes her first mug of Darjeeling tea and settles down at her desk to read the obituaries. The obits are the best part of her day, she admits. But not today. First she reads that her old college friend Gordon Sweet is dead. Then she learns he was murdered--at the abandoned landfill where the eccentric archaeology professor was conducting his latest dig. And just like that, the cranky 68 year old newspaper librarian finds herself investigating another murder. No, two murders! Dordon's death just might be linked to the grisly bludgeoning of state wrestling champ Davif Delarosa fifty years earlier. And so begins a harrowing and hilarious trek back to Maddy's old beatnik days, when she was a member of the Meriwether Square Baked Bean Existentialist Society. Legendary beat writer Jack Kerouac still casts a long shadow over the group. And there's a coffee house full of quirky suspects to consider: Poet Chick Glass, saxophonist Shaka Bop, free thinkinng Effie Fredmansky, snooty Gwen Moffitt Stumpfm and toxic waste dumper Kenneth Kingzette, just to name a few. There's a reason why reporters called Maddy "Morgue Mama" behind her back. And why cops and criminals alike get the jitters when she pulls up in her old Dodge Shadow. She is tough, tenacious, and as readers of C.R. Corwin's Morgue Mama: The Cross Kisses Back discovered, tricky as the dickens.

Corwin's latest, "Dig," is a riveting read, with well-developed, true-to-life characters, swift pacing and an arresting plot. My favorite character is police Detective Scotty Grant, who tries again to frighten our heroine, Maddy Sprowls, off the case. In this installment, Maddy feels compelled to look into the murder of one of her old and dear friends, making it a heartwrenching puzzle. Making this probe even more daunting is the fact that the list of possible suspects include many of her other old friends. Maddy operates in this yarn pretty much alone, making the investigation scarier in many respects. Corwin's prose is delightful, and the observations and descriptions are often scathing and hilarious. I comment "Dig" to everyone who loves a good mystery!

I'm a big fan of this series which started with Morgue Mama followed by Dig. For a light hearted series it's really well written and is filled with enjoyable, original characters with interesting histories. I recommend checking out the first two in the series and very much hope there will be a third.

Sixty-nine years old Maddy Sprowls, the head librarian for the past three plus decades at the Hannawa Herald-Union is stunned with today's obituary column. A friend from her days at Hemphill College, Gordon "Sweet Gordon" Sweet died. She learns from another section of the paper that someone shot Gordon in the back of the head. Maddy talks to the crime reporter, who explains a homicide occurred but no weapon was found near the Wooster Pile Landfill where the archeologist Professor was sifting through the garbage. Though warned off by Detective Scotty Grant, Maddy cannot let it go. She sees a connection to her bohemian days when she and the deceased garbologist were members of the Meriwether Square Baked Beans Extravaganza Society and the death over five decades ago of another student. Maddy applies her years of digging out facts as "Madame Morgue" to the investigation into the death of her college friend over the objections of the lead homicide detective and her paper's crime reporter; each fears for her life. The feisty Maddy makes for a fine time for amateur sleuth fans though her background digging for information for reporters (albeit reluctantly at best and not without making her customers pay with a pound of flesh) makes her more experienced in following leads and threads than most rookie detectives. Fans will want to join Maddy on her DIG for the truth, which is closer to her than she realizes. Harriet Klausner