Thursday, December 7, 2017

Six Feet Under (A Kenni Lowry Mystery #4)

Author:  Tonya Kappes
Genre:  Mystery

Trade Paperback
ISBN #:  9781635113082
Henery Press Publishing
  Pages
March 13, 2018

(More Information to Come)

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The residents of Cottonwood, Kentucky are sent into a tizzy when the Culinary Channel comes to town to film an episode of Southern Home Cookin' with celebrity chef Frank Von Lee.

Especially Sheriff Kenni Lowry.

Her mama's award-winning chicken pot pie is what brought Frank to town, and they don't make hair in the South bigger than her mama's ego after the news.

When Frank Von Lee is found dead from food poisoning and the most likely culprit is Mama's chicken pot pie, Kenni's poppa, the former sheriff, comes back from the Great Beyond to assist in the investigation.

But nothing's prepared Kenni for such a personal tie to a case, and she finds herself pushing the limits of the laws she's sworn to protect.

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Kenni Lowry is the sheriff of small-town Cottonwood, Kentucky.  She's happy in her job, taking over from her Grandfather 'Poppa', who's now a ghost and shows up to help when something bad is about to happen in their tight-knit community.

Her mama Vivian is over the moon because having won a contest for her chicken pot pie, it's now bringing to town Chef Frank Von Lee, who has a show on television and Vivian is one of two contestants to be interviewed, with the chef picking the best dish.

As if that's not enough, people are being seen all over town with pink handicapped stickers for their cars which are obviously illegal; someone is running an illegal Botox ring, and she's also navigating her new romantic relationship with her deputy Finn Vincent, and hasn't decided on a way to tell him about her Poppa; which, while they're still figuring it out, will have take second place to the fact that shortly after Frank arrived - he died.

Kenni received a call from the inn where he was staying, and it appears at first that he died from a heart attack.  But while in his room, she notices what's left of a pot pie and a memo he left behind stating it was from Vivian, and that from all appearances, it was store-bought.  While Kenni doesn't believe it for a minute, her mother has been acting strangely - including getting Botox injections, and now has a black eye she won't talk about.

So with Viv being the main suspect, Kenni is pulled from the case and Finn takes the lead.  But this is her mama and she's not going to sit back and watch her being railroaded for something she didn't do.  Once Kenni starts her own investigation, she learns that there's more than one person who might have had a finger in the pie and wanted Frank dead; but in order to pull Viv's fat out of the fire, they need to sift through the suspects and figure out which one wanted him cooked for good...

As always, Ms. Kappes has turned out a top-notch mystery about another murder in this little Southern town.  The usual residents make an appearance, of course, with the focus shifting on her mother this time around.  While, for the most part, the townspeople don't think Viv killed a man, there's still the circumstantial evidence - even if it doesn't make sense to Kenni and Finn.  Still, they need to strike quickly before a killer gets away.

There's so much going on that it's hard to decide what the best part of the book is.  I can honestly say that I enjoyed this one as much as the others, and that's quite a bit.  The author pulls us into Cottonwood's quirky characters' lives, making you either want to visit there or decide to keep your sanity and just stay away altogether!

When the ending comes and the killer is discovered, I have to say that it was done nicely.  The clues were all there, but it was interwoven in a delightful manner so that unless you were actually looking for them, you may miss them entirely.  I look forward to the next in the series.  Highly recommended.

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2207452110

More on Tonya Kappes's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/k/tonya-kappes/

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