Genre: Mystery
Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781496721471
Kensington Publishing
336 Pages
$7.99; $6.89 Amazon
May 26, 2020
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
After their Mama's passing, Marygene Brown returned to Peach Cove Island to help her sister Jena Lynn run the family diner, renowned for its homemade peach desserts. But Mama is never too far away -- her sassy spirit still haunts the island, and more specifically, Marygene. Lately Mama has been warning her that the dead will seek her out to solve their murders, an idea Marygene is far from peachy keen on.
But that prophecy appears to be coming true when she goes skinny-dipping off the island and swims right into a woman's charred corpse floating in the waves. And when Marygene and her brother Sam come upon a second burned body in a wine cellar at an event they're catering, it appears they have a double homicide on their hands. It soon turns out the victims have more in common than their charred remains, and Marygene will need to double down to find a killer who has no aversion to playing with fire. Good thing Mama has her back...
✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽
Marygene Brown, after a bad marriage in Savannah, has returned home to Peach Cove Island for good. She's taken her part in ownership of the family restaurant as the main baker, and is living inthe home her mother left her after she passed. But her mother never passed away permanently -- she's returned on and off as a spirit that only Marygene can see. Oh, there are people who believe in island spirits, but it's mainly the older ones and her friend Betsy, who waitresses at the restaurant.
The thing is, her mother only shows up now and again when she needs to tell Marygene something or help her, and right now, when Marygene is skinny dipping in the river, she needs to help her...because a charred body is floating near her. After Marygene has done screaming and putting herself together, she calls Eddie, who's her father and also the sheriff.
But things are never easy these days: Eddie has hired a deputy who looks on her with suspicion, and her relationship with her ex-boyfriend Alex is heated again. But when she's catering a party for her friend Yvonne, it takes a nasty turn: another body is found in the cellar by Margene and her brother Sam. Yet that's not the worst of it, and Marygene is finding herself in a firestorm of trouble, one that could get her killed once again...
This is the second book in the series and I have to say that I enjoyed it quite as much as the first. This series is like a breath of fresh air in the cozy genre; there is no 'evil nemesis' (at least none permanent), which I absolutely loathe when it occurs. Nothing takes away from a good story than a person who ruins it by trying to destroy the life of someone.
Marygene is a damaged soul: she has a past that still causes her pain and she's having trouble moving on from it, and now she has her mother as a guardian spirit - with rules: her mother isn't allowed to be with her all the time, and comes and goes without Marygene being able to determine. She's also trying to create a different relationship with Eddie, whom she's only known was her father since she was sixteen. But she has a strong relationship with her sister Jena Lynn and brother Sam; and, of course, Betsy, who sticks by her and understands about the island ghosts like no one else.
Still, there's the matter of the bodies: it seems they've been identified as twins who disappeared twenty-five years ago. But there are complications: there's a group of women - one of which was Marygene's mother Clara - who knew them and the living ones might have clues as to what happened. But since they're all giving different stories, Eddie isn't getting anywhere with it. And Marygene thinks Eddie might be hiding something himself. Now Marygene is determined to find out the truth since if she doesn't, her mother told her the spirits could be vengeful.
We also have the return of reporter Calhoun, and I like him even more in this book than I did in the last. He's a reporter with ethics, and he cares about Marygene. I definitely like him more than Alex, who has a hair-trigger temper. I'd like to see more come of it, although I don't think even if it did that it would be awhile. I'm just glad he's still in the narrative. He was good to her in the last book, and just so in this one, too. We also have a new deputy in the picture who has an attraction for Marygene, but rightly she's working through her issues, which are primary to her.
The mystery was a very good one, and it took time to sift through suspects and what really became of the young women so long ago, and why their bodies surfaced just now. When everything started to come together, it was a strange and sad tale all at the same time. Desperation and sadness make people do things that I've never understood and probably never will.
All in all, it was an intriguing mystery that kept me reading and trying to filter out the clues as to finding a killer; it was written well and the climax was done nicely. I would love nothing more than to read the next in the series immediately; so I will have to patiently wait until that comes about. Highly recommended.
https://www.amazon.com/Southern-Sass-Crispy-Corpse-Kensington/dp/1496721470/ref
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3271337785
More on Kate Young's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/y/kate-young/
No comments:
Post a Comment