THE DROP EDGE OF YONDER

1914. A mother of ten protects her own while cooking, cleaning and snooping in rural Oklahoma.

Alafair Tucker (The Old Buzzard Had It Coming, 2005, etc.) is a mite upset. The McBride boy has been shot dead, his fiancée Laura has been abducted and two of the Tucker gals, Mary and Ruth, witnessed the whole episode, though Ruth tore off for help before she got a good look at the culprit, and Mary was knocked unconscious and can’t quite remember what happened, though she has a niggling feeling it had something to do with a Fourth of July picnic. While her dad and his kinfolk prowl the countryside and her mom coaxes gossip from neighbors, Laura is found nearly comatose, and her bedroom is set on fire. Then someone takes another shot at Mary. A boy and girl go missing, and two of the ranch hands, Kurt and Micah, come under suspicion. Alafair stops cooking, cleaning and gossiping long enough to effect a last-minute rescue and ensure the safety of her brood.

So homespun the text should have been cross-stitched instead of typed. Includes ten recipes (fried okra pie, peach ice cream, etc.) and laundry instructions (how to iron a shirt).