Doing It at the Dixie Dew
A Mystery
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Who says you can't go home again?
When Beth McKenzie returns to her hometown and attempts to turn an old Southern mansion into a bed and breakfast called The Dixie Dew, her first guest is murdered. Three days later a young priest who looks better in tennis whites than cleric black is found strangled in his chapel. The whole town of Littleboro is turned upside down, inside out, and Ossie Delbardo, the town cop whose job heretofore mainly involved controlling football traffic on Friday nights, is not cut out to solve the murders. Beth fears her newly opened B&B is in danger of failing. She's even more worried that she is Ossie's number one suspect. Aided by her friend from high school and trusty handyman, she sets out to discover the truth of the murders.
Littleboro has its share of characters, some of which are helpful and others misleading. There's Crazy Reba who lives in a tree, bathes in any bathtub she finds empty, and Dumpster dives; Verna, the town know-it-all and affectionate owner of Robert Redford, a huge white rabbit; and Miss Tempie Merritt, music teacher and organist who always wears hat, gloves, and lace-trimmed white socks. When Beth herself is attacked, there's no more time for baking muffins and stenciling pineapples on the porch. She's in a race to uncover her neighbors' secrets before her hometown becomes her burial ground.
Ruth Moose's Doing It at the Dixie Dew is a charming and delightful debut.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Moose's delightful first cozy, winner of the Malice Domestic Competition for Best First Traditional Mystery Novel, stars Beth McKenzie, who returns to her hometown of Littleboro, N.C., to open the Dixie Dew Bed-and-Breakfast. Her first night in business, Beth is dismayed to find 80-plus-year-old Lavinia Lovingood lying dead on the floor of Miss Lavinia's locked room. Beth is even more alarmed when the death is ruled a homicide, and she knows that Littleboro's police chief, Oswald DelGardo, has no experience with murder investigations. If she's going to save the Dixie Dew, she'll have to find out who wanted her elderly guest dead, and sets out to do just that with the help of her best friend, Malinda Jones, and her hunky handyman, Scott Smith. After the discovery of a second murder victim, Beth herself becomes a target. Little old ladies in gloves and hats, financial shenanigans, a large rabbit, and the fishbowl life of a small town add to the fun.