Most helpful customer reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Deadly Doings in Dixie, Oct 16 2006
Patricia Anne and Mary Alice are sisters but there the similarities end. Patricia Anne (Mouse) is a sixty-year old retired schoolteacher who has been married to the same man (Fred) for forty years and she weighs one hundred and five pounds soaking wet. Mary Alice (Sister, Aunt Sister to Mouse's children) is sixty-five, weighs two hundred and fifty pounds and has outlived three husbands. Mouse is well grounded, tries to eat a healthy diet and always votes Democratic. Sister is flighty, claims that Mouse doesn't eat enough and always votes Republican. The fertile mind of Anne George dreamed up this pair, put them in position to solve a mystery and neither Alabama or the mystery world will ever be the same again.
Sister and her boyfriend Bill are into line dancing and when the owner of their favorite honky-tonk decides to sell Mary Alice decides to buy. The day after the sale closes however the former owner is found dead in the bar's wishing well and from then on Sister's investment is jinxed. The sisters don't really set out to catch the killer but instead are trying to help a former student of Patricia Anne's who is a suspect in the crime. The more they delve into matters though the deeper they find themselves and before it is all said and done one of the sisters finds herself on the wrong end of a gun. Since this is the first book in the series it is easy to assume that the endangered sister survives but you'll never guess who saves the day.
As with most cozy mysteries the characters tend to overshadow the plot and the hero figures don't actually solve anything but just sort of blunder into the solution. The characters are so much fun though that you will hardly notice when the plot happens to disappear. Seldom does a book like this make me laugh out loud but this one did the trick and the plot held just strongly enough to make me rush toward the end once I approached the climax of the mystery. As a born and raised Southerner I could clearly visualize these two and could actually identify them with several of my own family members, right down to the double first names. So pour yourself a nice glass of sweet tea and settle down on the veranda for an unforgettable visit with these two Southern ladies extraordinaire.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
I have discovered another great series!, Jun 1 2004
This is my first mystery by this author, but I intend to read the whole series now. Although I jumped into the middle of the series with this book, it didn't put me at any disadvantage, as every connection, everything I might need to know, seemed adequately explained.The plot involves two 60-something Birmingham, Alabama sisters and their involvement with a murder: Patricia Ann (Mouse) and her sister Sister (Mary Alice). Mary Alice is larger than life -- literally and figuratively, whereas diminuitive Patricia Ann (happily married mother of three, retired schoolteacher) would have a fairly dull life were it not for her flamboyant sister and her sister's energetic embrace of life. This time, Mary Alice (made wealthy by being widowed three times by wealthy men) has bought a country-western bar (more or less on impulse). The seller (Ed) shortly after turns up very dead -- in the bar -- and the situation deteriorates from there. The real mystery is why Ed was killed. If the answer is found to that question, then it may be easier to find out by whom -- and to see who among a group of people connected to the bar is the dangerous one. The strengths of this book are the good literary quality (George writes well), the humor, the vivid characterization, and the plotting. I was entertained and engaged and like the characters well enough to want to know what's going to happen to them in the next books in the series -- like these are real people that I know. I was surprised by the outcome, although I am a veteran reader of mysteries, but it was plausible and some clues were there as seen in retrospect. What more could a reader of mysteries want?
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A Hilarious Mystery!, May 10 2004
Patricia Anne "Mouse" thinks her sister, Mary Alice "Sister" is crazy for buying the Skoot 'n Boot country western bar. Just because Sister and her current boyfriend like going line dancing there doesn't mean that it will be a sure-fire moneymaker, but, as always, Sister leaps before she looks. Resigned to going along with Sister's latest crazed venture, Patricia Anne lets herself be dragged out to see the big purchase. Patricia Anne is pleasantly surprised at the nice building and country decorations - and the kitchen is amazing! - and starts to think that Sister could really make a go of it. Unfortunately, when they return the next day, they find the previous owner's body stabbed, strangled and dangling in the bar's wishing well. Sheriff Reuse is determined to get to the bottom of the murder and Patricia Anne is all for letting him take care of it, until his prime suspect becomes Henry, one of her best (and favorite) students in all her years of teaching at the local high school. Its true that Henry's life got a little derailed after he graduated and left for college, but Patricia Anne just knows that Henry couldn't have done it. So Patricia Anne, despite her husband Fred's warnings to the contrary, stays involved in Sister's country western bar scheme and starts looking for clues. Along the way, she finds that clues are often found in the places where you least expect to find them - and that even the kindest person can be driven to murder... Murder on a Girl's Night Out is the first in the Southern Sisters mystery series and I have to admit that I laughed out loud several times while reading the book. The characters are absolutely a scream! Patricia Anne is sixty, happily married for 40 years with 3 children, all married, a retired school teacher, prim, proper, dainty and petite. Mary Alice is sixty-five, 250 pounds, a three-time widow who buried all of her husbands next to each other, wealthy, eccentric, and used to getting her own way. It is true that the mystery wasn't that terribly exciting and that the story had a nice, slow pace to it, but the author still gets five stars for her fabulous characters! The interaction between the sisters was the highlight of the book and the supporting characters were all very unique and memorable in their own special ways. If you have a sister you are close to, this book will be just that much more enjoyable, but you don't have to have a sister and you don't have to be old to enjoy this great book! Anyone, young, old, fat, thin, only child or one of twelve will enjoy this funny mystery!
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