Review: REMINDS ME OF MISS MARPLE (but less formal)
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 13, 2013
Myrtle Clover is in her 80's, has a busybody neighbor she can't abide, has a son who's the chief of police and solves mysteries just for fun. Her friendly neighbor, Miles, pitches in, though he does tire of it. And he blames Myrtle for getting him hooked on one soap opera they tape and watch together, sometimes in the middle of the night because Myrtle has insomnia.The author doesn't waste a second getting into action. The dead body shows up almost immediately. Trouble is, it's in Myrtle's back yard. The married duo who clean her house and do her yard work claim to be too frightened to carry on, and the busybody runs across the street to remind the chief of police that a woman in her 80's shouldn't be subjected to such shock. It was time to send her to a rest home.What? Erma didn't make that threat then? Erma makes that same threat so often that it just isn't funny. As you learn about Erma you will realize she means well, but she's a bit of a hypochondriac.Myrtle, on the other hand, goes where she wants and seems to do what she wants. She's an investigative reporter for the local paper and, as such, feels she has the right to ask any question in reference to the latest crime.When she took shelter in her son's house from other reporters investigating the crime, she learned that her daughter-in-law had taken up a new hobby- photography. As Mildred leads through the pictures she was surprised to find photos of the sead man arguing with her dentist and the local handyman. Most of the pictures were decorated with her daughter-in-law's finger or thumb.AHA!! A starting place!Before the book is over her friendly next door neighbor will discover relatives he never knew he had; a man who had been respected in the community will be revealed to have been a criminal in another state.Oh yeah, another body will wind up in Mildred's back head-in exactly the same place.Just how many murderers will Mildred have to find before the case is solved?