Now don't go getting all knicker-knotted over that title. My crack house is not THAT kind of crack house. I'm talking Barnes and Noble and my local libraries! Books are like crack to me--no matter how many I have, I need more!
I 'own' a group on CafeMom called I LOVE A LITTLE MYSTERY and one of the joys of that group is our monthly BOOK OF THE MONTH discussions. This month we picked an author instead of a specific book and the winner of the poll was MARY KAY ANDREWS. I happened to have one of her books on my shelf, SAVANNAH BLUES. This was in my 'goody bag' from when I attended Malice Domestic a couple years ago. I got home, added it to my collection and forgot all about it, until last week.
The main character, Eloise Foley, Weezie to her friends and family, has recently suffered a great blow--her marriage to Talmadge Evans III, Tal, was usurped by a floozy from up North with no class, tact or sense of how things are done Down South. Weezie is forced out of her home in Savannah's Historic District--a home she found and lovingly restored herself, and is living in the carriage house that was to be her antique store someday. She is living in the backyard of the house she once owned while the woman who stole her life is living in 'the big house' with her husband. That's enough to make any woman boil, but a Savannah woman makes the best of it and plots revenge over wine and chocolate with her best friend.
Weezie is also a 'picker' meaning she picks through garage sales and sometimes the trash to find items of value, fixes them up if needed and sells them to make her living. She's quite good at it as well! When a grand plantation house in Savannah is scheduled for an estate sale, Weezie can't wait to get a look at what is inside. She finds more than she bargains for when she opens a closet and finds the dead body of none other than Caroline DeSantos--the floozy from up North whose death Weezie had been known to think about from time to time. Weezie is arrested and she and her friend BeBe (pronounced Bay Bay) along with her uncle James (a priest turned lawyer) and an old high school beau and new love interest Daniel work to prove Weezie innocent and point the finger of the law in the direction it belongs!
This story is rich and smooth--like a good banana puddin' on any Sunday in the South! Full of body and character and nothing left to chance. Ms. Andrews even gave me an ending I could smile about reading!
People, I LOVED that book! Ms. Andrews even made Savannah as much a character as any of her other characters! She so obviously understands the fact that if you are going to set a story in a place like Savannah, then you had better make it a character unto itself because that's how life IS down South! Where you are from and who your 'people' are matter!
The characters in this book are somewhat stereotypical, but are far from caricatures--perfect blend of familiarity and individuality and not easy to pull off! Ms. Andrews does it with skill.
This was the first of her books I've read, but it won't be the last--which means another trip to one of my crack houses! I'm thinking Barnes and Noble because I doubt I'll want to return this one!
Until next time,
Laine
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