Southern Sisters Mystery Series
Book Talk #12 (I think, I've lost track)
If you have been reading along here you might have picked up on my mystery obsession. It started when I was very young, Encyclopedia Brown and Nancy Drew were my gateway drugs and Dame Agatha was the gift that just kept giving. It took me a long time to branch away from the Golden Age books and try some more contemporary authors but I did find some delightful ones. This is one of those series that I tore through and was truly sad to find that the author had passed away after only eight novels.
The Southern Sisters Mysteries star Patricia Ann Hollowell (known to her older sister as Mouse) a retired high school English teacher and her sister Mary Alice (known to her sister as Sister) is a bold, brassy broad with a zest for life. Together they are exactly what you would want in 60-ish-year-old southern ladies who happen to be sisters and who happen to keep stumbling upon murders.
The books are set in Birmingham, Alabama, the author Anne George, having been a lifelong resident of that fair city. This series makes you want to visit, if nothing else to gaze upon the backside of Vulcan (read the books you’ll get it). George brings to life the charm of southern life in a historic but cosmopolitan city.
The series begins with Murder on a Girl’s Night Out, an Agatha Award winner. Mary Alice, who has married for love three times to three increasingly wealthy men and buried each of them, has the harebrained idea to buy a country western bar to capitalize on the current line dancing craze (this was written in the late 90s and there was a line dancing craze then). Mary Alice and her current boyfriend love to hang out there and her thought was to have a great time while also investing in the new trend. Right after the purchase becomes final she and Patricia Ann find the body of the previous owner gruesomely murdered at the Boot and Skoot.
These books are much more character-driven than plot-driven. The conclusions are often a little far-fetched, and sometimes, the solutions are slightly unfair to the reader since all the information is not available to them, which breaks a Golden Age rule but is less important in more contemporary works. However the dialogue is just perfect, the relationships are well drawn and the descriptions of the clothes, food, and lifestyles of these Southern Sisters make you want to sell everything up and go live down south. These books are as comforting as fried chicken and peach pie.
It sounds odd to say that you will laugh out loud in a murder mystery but I sincerely laughed out loud while reading each of these. They are a perfect comfort, the world is too much right now, read.
Here’s the list.
Murder on a Girl’s Night Out - 1996
Murder on a Bad Hair Day - 1996
Murder Runs in the Family - 1997
Murder Makes Waves - 1997 (best mystery of them all)
Murder Gets a Life - 1998 (the funniest in my opinion)
Murder Boogies with Elvis - 2001 (knowing this is the last, the ending is particularly wonderful)
Those are a/f links but if you click on them, (thank you) be sure you check the “Other, Used” section where you can get them for about $6. Don’t pay $25 for a paperback. Last time I checked Thriftbooks has plenty of them as well. I think you are going to want to own these because you are going to want to read them again and again. A few people I have recommended them to bought the whole series, so I know of what I speak.
I liked this short article about using “the nice” dishes. I still love my wedding china and am much more inclined to pull it out on a random Sunday than a holiday.
When I saw this cottage it became my goal in life to live in a home like this. That my six foot four husband would be constantly banging his head on the beams bothers me not at all. Do you love stone cottages in the Cotswolds?
If you have been enjoying this random little newsletter of mine I would deeply appreciate a share. Thank you.
Well, you done it again, Mary Ellen. This book was a light, fun read that got me through a few days of unusually heavy appointments and waiting. I kept this little book in my purse and I actually welcomed a lull because it meant I got to check in with a couple of ladies I was getting to like a lot. You're right, I feel a hankering to read the next one right away! Thank you.