When Will the Dead Lady Sing? (Thoroughly Southern Mysteries, No. 6)

After a long day, you like to sit down sometimes and just read a fun book that doesn't require much brain power. Well this is one of those books. A delightful story with some fun characters, yet it had some powerful things to say about raising children and making allowances for the disabled as subtle messages within the book. I've never lived in the south and so whenever I read a book that presents southerners in a certain way I wonder if it is true, as every cozy mystery I read presents them in the same way. The ladies fussing with their clothes, concerned about great grandma's china, and holding childhood grudges until their 90's, yet let a stranger come to town and they all band together. This book maintains all that, so it certainly won't disappoint, as the series is called a Thoroughly Southern Mystery. If this is your kind of book, you will enjoy it. If you hate typical southern mysteries give it a pass and read something else as there are plenty of books yet in the world. I know I enjoyed at and was able to read it in one sitting if you don't count having to get up and make popcorn part way through!

As always I enjoyed this Patrica Sprinkle book. It is one of those books that is hard to put down and go to bed.

Except for the first two books, I have read all of Patricia Sprinkle's Thoroughly Southern Mystery series to date and have loved each one. The stories envelop the reader in the cozy comfort of visiting with old friends, without ever letting them overstay their welcome. Each book reveals something new about returning favorites and introduces enough new friends, family members, and villains to keep things fresh and interesting. The mysteries are clever, intriguing, complex. The setting is rich in the regional flavors, customs, and manners of the small-town South, but never at the expense of other cultures or groups of people. This series never disappoints. I hope Signet will one day offer BUT WHY SHOOT THE MAGISTRATE? and WHEN DID WE LOSE HARRIET? in the same style as the rest of the series so my collection may be complete.

Hopemore magistrate, MacLauren Yarbrough, wakes up to find a buffalo in her yard and her biggest secret hiding behind a tree. But the surprises aren't over, and when she finds a dead body under the town's water tower, MacLauren gets caught in an investigation that threatens the serenity of Hopemore, the state's political landscape, and her treasured marriage to the only man she ever loved. Patricia Sprinkle's chatty approach to storytelling and her vivid, southern descriptions gives a new meaning to the phrase cozy mystery. This book is delightfully charming, and just the beginning of what is now my interest in Ms. Sprinkle's novels.

In the town of Hopemore, Georgia, MacLaren's day gets off to an unusual start when she sees a buffalo munching on the grass in the yard of her new house. By the time she finds the courage to go outside and get the animal away from her rose bushes, she has the second shock of the morning. Her college boyfriend Burlin Bullock, the one her husband Joe Ridley doesn't know about, is explaining to her that the buffalo is a symbol of his son's run for governor.MacLaren would like to leave Hopemore for the week that the Bullocks are in town but business prevents her from doing so. She gets to see Burlin more than she would like. A homeless person who is following the Bullocks on the campaign trail is found murdered and circumstantial evidence points to a person that MacLaren knows is innocent and plans to prove it. The real killer, whom fears that MacLaren will figure out the truth, decides to kill her.This down home regional mystery gives readers a sprinkle of small town deep south living, customs and mannerisms. The protagonist is a judge who does more to solve crimes than to render judgments on them. Patricia Sprinkle knows how to write a charming and quaint mystery without resorting to blood, gore or on stage violence of any kind. WHEN WILL THE DEAD LADY SING? is a great installment in a winning series.Harriet Klausner