Sick of Shadows

This is the first book in the MacPherson stories. The characters are extraordinary. They are true Southern characters. We don't our strangeness down in the South. It sits right on the front porch. While I loved the characters, the plot was weak. It was a whodunit that I solved before the murder actually occurred. I thought the plot lacked the pizzazz of the characters. It is a decent book, just not in the top tier of McCrumb's books.

The Sharon McCrumb series is hailed as Elizabeth McPherson series and that is a severe misnomer. The character named here is not always the main character in the series and is actually never right in her deductions until book eight If I'd Killed Him When I Met Him. Saying that, I still recommend the series as enjoyable reads. Her male characters in fact usually have the best lines. I love cousin Geofrey, brother Bill is not bad and in a couple of the books is more the main character than Elizabeth. The books are often good historical novels and hopefully you enjoy British,Scottish and Confederacy trivia for it abounds. It does not distract much from the mysteries and often aids it. I have not gotten the last one written The PMS Outlaws in part due to the poor reviews and in part because the death of Cameron was depressing even for me. He was not such a major influence or deterrent in the stories that his demise was necessary and I feel it has overshadowed what little there was of Elizabeth in the stories to begin with. Still books 1- 8 were enjoyable cozy mysteries. And if you are a reader looking for Temperance Brennan stop now, this southern woman is not even close.

I started the series with Highland Laddie Gone. "Sick of Shadows" answers a lot of questions about relationships between Elizabeth, Aunt Amanda, Cousin Geoffrey and Cousin Charles. The letters between Elizabeth and her brother, Bill, are really funny and set the tone for the entire series. I highly recommend reading this book if you've read any of the others in the series, and if this is your first one, go ahead and read Highland Laddie Gone. By the time you finish that one, you should be hooked! Although these are all technically mystery novels, I enjoyed the character development and travelog-type descriptions of locations in this series.

While lying in bed last weekend, moaning under the weight of a killer headache, I tossed aside the book I had been reading because it required too much concentration. The constant brow-furrowing and synapse-firing was exacerbating my mal-du-tete, so I sought something lighter. Something funny. Something that wouldn't hurt my enfeebled head. I found it in Sharyn McCrumb's "Sick of Shadows", a novel of characters in which the mystery is incidental. Each character is original, fun and lively, with quirks that may have seemed quirkier years ago when this book was written, but now seem as normal as any American family. The main character is Elizabeth McPherson, recent college graduate, who goes on to figure in many more of McCrumb's novels (McCrumb seems to have fallen in love with her Appalachian cycle, so Ms. McPherson's fate is uncertain, at best). Her mad cousin, Eileen, is about to be married and has invited Elizabeth to be a bridesmaid. Cousin Geoffrey is a Shakespeare-spouting layabout, Cousin Alban is a history buff who built a castle on his property and Charles is a hippie physicist. McCrumb gives Elizabeth a wry matter-of-fact delivery that occasionally made me laugh out loud, and her favorite device is revealing her impressions of the family in frequent letters to her brother, Bill, who is unable to attend the wedding. The murder, when it finally happens, is shocking and sad, yet McCrumb doesn't allow it to weigh the book down with sorrow.All in all, "Sick of Shadows" was just what I needed to get me through a miserable day. Of course, I was cheating, as I had read it years ago and was only now rereading it, so I knew it would be perfect, but that shouldn't steer you away from this book or the series. I plan to reread them all.

I started the Elizabeth books in the middle and had to find all of them as I went. I had read all of them in topsy-turvey order, so knew who the killer really was. You know the author is incrediable if she can keep you glued to the pages without eating or sleeping even when you know who the killer is. With a huge inheritence in the balance, anyone could have been the killer. I finished the whole novel in just 3 hours. I highly recommend it to any fan of the mystery genre!!!

Well, I just love everything Sharon McCrumb has written. "Sick of Shadows" is one of the Elizabeth McPherson books. Elizabeth gets involved in murders everywhere she turns-- my life is so boring! I've read all of these she's written except "Windsor Knot"-- which I can't find. Her other books are located in upper-east Tennessee. As a Georgia girl living in Kansas I love reading about places and folklore I'm familiar with. The other stories are kinda ghosty. Read 'em you'll love 'em