Thoroughly Southern Mystery Series

Patricia Sprinkle is the author of a "Thoroughly Southern Mystery Series" starring Georgia magistrate MacLaren Yarbrough. These are easy cozy reads. I recently read "Guess Who's Coming to Die" in which Mac is invited to join the upper-crust Magnolia Ladies Investment Club. At her first meeting Mac discovers the body of one of the members with a corkscrew stuck in her neck.

While this book was somewhat enjoyable, I just didn't connect with the character of MacLaren. Sometimes you just don't click.

I think I enjoy more Laura Childs' Tea Shop mystery series which takes place in Charleston, South Carolina and follows the exploits of tea shop owner and sometime sleuth Theodosia Browning. I don't think I've written about Theo's adventures in this blog, but I've read several and frankly I just enjoy her more --- even if Childs seems at times to be a little too overly affectionate with her heroine.

So, if you'd like a Southern mystery, I prefer Theo over Mac!

Until next time, may your reading be both pleasurable and profitable.

Second Helping Equally Satisfying

I just completed Rosemary Poole-Carter's new book "The Women of Magdelene." I recently wrote of her first novel "What Remains" which was a throughly delightful book. This one didn't disappoint.

Her new novel takes place in Louisiana after the Civil War. Dr. Robert Mallory is arriving at the Magdalene Ladies' Lunatic Asylum to begin practicing general medicine there after a stint as an army surgeon. Upon his arrival, he finds a dead body of a patient floating in river. This starts his journey of discovery regarding the morals, ethics and practices of the asylum's owner and practicing psychiatrist, Dr. Kingston.

Dr. Mallory is a wounded soul when he arrives. The novel explores his situation and that of some of the women there, most notably Effie, a "mad" woman who is not really mad and who uses her silence to protect herself.

This is a wonderfully lyric novel. It is easy to see the growth of the novelist in terms of parallelism of themes, symbolism and character development. Again she has succeeded in creating the genteel South struggling after the "recent unpleasantness."

I highly recommend this one! You can listen to Rosemary Poole-Carter's KUHF interview here.

Until next time, may your reading be both pleasurable and profitable.

Southern Gothic from a New, Local Author

I recently tuned into KUHF, the local classical station, and heard an interview with a local author on her new book. The author had the finest voice; her pacing in her comments was perfect as was her enunciation. I wanted to read the book just after hearing her.

Her name is Rosemary Poole-Carter, and her new book is Woman of Magdelene. Well, it wasn't available at the library yet, so I ordered a book of hers that they did have entitled "What Remains."

This story centers around Isabelle, a woman recently bereft of her Civil War beau, and a journalist named Paul Delahoussaye who has come to the family home of Belle Ombre to return a packet of loveletters Isabelle had written to her fiance. He has fallen in love with her through his surreptitious reading of the letters.

Also residing at Belle Ombre are the deceptive and graciously Machiavellian Aunt Delora, her great-uncle Babcock Vasseur and his wife Lydie Vee, a young and rather mischievous cousin Euphrasie and a vital assortment of former slaves who still live at Belle Ombre.

Almost immediately a murder (?) and then another takes place and Delora asks Paul to stay on and use his skills as a journalist to find out who is behind this second death. Family secrets are revealed as more sinister things seem to be going on behind the scenes at this plantation home.

The language, mannerisms and culture are vibrant in this well-researched book. It feels completely of its time, and one is easily transported there. The character development is wonderful, and the pacing of the mystery is fabulous. It truly is a page-turner. The author truly has a gift, and I really look forward to reading the book she was promoting.

Allow me to relate the first sentence as it is just fabulous: "It was Isabelle's turn to sit with the body." I love that! Just 9 words, but do they ever pack a punch! I defy you to not be able to continue reading after that line!

Until next time, may your reading be both pleasurable and profitable.