Sex in a Sidecar: A Sherri Travis Mystery

This murder mystery, set in Florida during hurricane season, is slow to unfold, as Sherri Travis, an unlikely heroine, goes about the business of reestablishing her life after a hurricane strikes. The plot successively grips one in the aftermath of the storm. Perhaps an underachiever in life, Sherri tends bar and those around her, with an inquisitive mind that sifts through the tragic events around recent murders on her beloved island. At some point she becomes aware that she herself is a target. Sherri is unique, with an earthy taste for life, and a propensity to make bad decisions when it comes to men. She perseveres as events unfold, surviving by virtue of her physical and mental toughness. I will not chronicle the story further, but clearly, this author has what is takes in creating a believable heroine who, in her first 2 mysteries, shows that she has what it takes, when the "authorities" really don't get it.

Bartender Sherri Travis mixes the drinks at the Sunset Bar in Jacaranda, Florida when Hurricane Myrna hitting the Gulf veers towards the town. She knows it is time to evacuate, but cannot find the keys to the truck she inherited from her late husband Jimmy. Customer Gina from Pittsburgh admits she is on the trail of a serial killer who murdered her sister; she offers Sherri a ride. With no other option, as everyone is gone she accepts. However, Gina fails to head in the direction to safety, but instead drives towards the hurricane. In South Beach Gina stops and jumps out of the car. Sherri cannot find Gina at first, but soon sees the woman dead in the car. A palm tree blocks Sherri from fleeing the storm so she rushes to the nearby home of her mother-in-law who loathes Sherri and blames her for Jimmy's murder (see Margarita Nights). Sherri finds Bernice with a broken leg and perhaps much more. She drives inland with Bernice taking her to the nearest hospital while her passenger harangues her just short of accusing Sherri of causing the hurricane. After the storm leaves the clean up begins as Sherri obtains work at the country club until the Sunset Bar can be fixed. However, a killer may not be sure that Sherri cannot identify him so he is coming after her. The second Sherri Travis thriller is an exhilarating tale refreshed by the hurricane that assaults Florida. The story line is fast-paced even when Sherri and company prepare for Myrna and never slows down as the plot twists once the clean-up begins. Fans will appreciate Sherri's amateur sleuthing and especially enjoy Phyllis Smallman's humor in the midst of danger as the heroine and her former mother-in-law cannot share a continent let alone a state even with their lives on the line. The two Travis' tales are wonderful mysteries.

Does that drop-dead-gorgeous book cover with the shimmering drink look familiar? Move over, Hurricane Myrna, Sherri Travis is back in town. One of Canada's fastest rising crimewriters, Phyllis Smallman follows up her amazing debut MARGARITA NIGHTS with SEX IN A SIDECAR. On a sultry Florida gulf island, bartender Sherri Travis is mixing drinks at her beloved Sunset Bar in the colourful town of Jacaranda, when Hurricane Myrna blows in. In the final minutes before flight, her nervous friend Gina confesses that she's on the track of her sister's murderer, a serial killer who may still be in the neighbourhood. While she's evacuating in the panic, Sherri finds herself dubious witness to Gina's own death, then stranded as the road is blocked by a fallen palm. Seeking a ride at a nearby house, Sherri rescues her hateful ex-mother-in-law. With the old bat in the backseat nursing a broken leg, she hustles inland to the hospital, fighting flooded streets and gale-force winds. The scene turns comic as the two formidable ladies spar over Sherri's dead husband. He may have been a blackmailer, but he was Bernice's baby boy, whose only crime was marrying Sherri. As everyone returns to clean up the devastated island, Sherri finds an interim job. Strolling into a posh beach-and- tennis club as last-minute staff, the wise-cracking lady puts herself front and centre in a hunt for the killer. As she says, "In the rainy season we get hurricanes, in the dry season we get tourists. Both can be nasty. But when they come together, it's murder." With the same tongue-in-cheek repartee that earned her kudos for her first book, Smallman bars no holds in this second outing. Not only does she nail the noontime-drinks-by-the-pool-discussing-plastic-surgery-techniques set, but she aces the more slithery characters who lurk in the swampy undergrowth one-half step ahead of an alligator. Detective Styles may be non-descript as rice pudding, but he can find "fly [specks] in pepper," as Sherri observes. Smallman divides her time between Salt Spring Island in the Georgia Strait and her Gulf of Mexico paradise. Readers who can't get enough of this classy dame will be waiting for the next drink to slide down the bar.