Murder Runs in the Family: A Southern Sisters Mystery

Mary Alice has spared nothing for her only daughter's wedding — from seventy-five yards of bridal train to gourmet food for over three hundred guests and enough glittering elegance to make Mary Alice think about finding herself a fourth rich husband to pay for it all. Practical Patricia Anne has put away her aunt-of-the-bride blue chiffon and settled back into domesticity when fun-loving Mary Alice calls to say they have a post-wedding date with a genealogist from the groom's side of the family. Lunch is a fascinating lesson on the hazards of finding dirty linens in ancestral boudoirs that ends abruptly when their guest scurries off with the local judge, leaving the sisters with their mouths open — and finishing their luncheon companion's cheesecake — when the police arrive. Their mysterious guest has taken a plunge from the ninth floor of the courthouse building — an apparent suicide. But given the scandals a nosy genealogist might have uncovered, the sisters are betting that some proud Southern family is making sure their shameful secrets stay buried. . .along with anyone who tries to dig them up. Publishers Weekly Retired Alabama schoolteacher Patricia Anne Hollowell and her sister Mary Alice (heroines of Murder on a Girls' Night Out and Murder on a Bad Hair Day) befriend genealogist Meg Ryan at the wedding of Mary Alice's daughter. Afterward, inexplicably, Meg commits suicide by jumping out of the courthouse window, an event witnessed by a judge. It's all too much for Patricia Anne and Mary Alice, and once again they are drawn into playing amateur sleuths. Along the way, the sisters find out that the sweet elderly lady was not above tampering with courthouse records, and perhaps even worse. With wonderful dialogue and descriptions of the guests, the opening wedding scene is truly entertaining, but then the plot spins out of control. The book remains a clever first half of a mystery that unfortunately doesn't hold up. (June) Mary Alice has spared nothing for her only daughters weddingproviding enough gourmet food and glittering elegance to make Sister think seriously about finding herself a rich fourth husband to pay for it all. Practical Patricia Anne has put away her aunt-of-the-bride blue chiffon and settled back into domesticity when fun-loving Mary Alice informs her that they have a post-wedding date with a genealogist from the grooms side of the family. But lunch is an abbreviated affair when their guest interrupts a fascinating talk on the hazards of finding dirty linens in ancestral boudoirs and scurries off with the local judge. And the sisters are only just finishing their departed luncheon companions cheesecake when the police arrive. Their recent guest has taken a plunge from the ninth floor of the courthouse buildingan apparent suicide. But given the scandals the nosy genealogist was capable of uncovering, Mouse and Sister are betting that some proud Southern family is making sure their shameful secrets stay buriedalong with anyone who tries to dig them up. Sister Mary Alice and Patricia Anne are having lunch with a local, and very nosy, genealogist in order to delve into their family heritage, when the lineage tracer is urgently called away by a local judge. A few minutes later, the genealogist takes a plunge off the ninth floor of the courthouse, her death labeled a suicide. Given the scandals the genealogist uncovered, the sisters are sure some righteous family ensured that their secrets were not about to leak out Inquisitive sisters-turned-amateur sleuths Mary Alice and Patricia Anne probe the mysterious "suicide" of their luncheon guest, a nosy genealogist who may have uncovered a host of shameful secrets and scandals Title from PDF title page (viewed on Apr. 28, 2009).