COLD READING MURDER

A Mississippi newlywed takes a pre-honeymoon break to solve a case of murder.

Wendy Lyons Winchester and Detective Ross Rierson have just tied the knot under the benevolent gaze of her father, Police Chief Bax Winchester. Wendy, whose job as investigative reporter for the Rosalie Citizen still leaves her plenty of time for bridge, has started teaching a group of five novice players. One of them, Rosalie native Sarah Ann O’Rourke, is under the thumb of her extremely religious mother. The others, all new arrivals, are Charlotte Ruth, the nervous widow of a man who died by suicide; Vance Quimby, an author who’s soaking up Mississippi atmosphere; Aurelia Spangler, who claims to be psychic; and talented Milton Bagdad, who delivers singing telegrams for Party Palooza. Wendy agrees to give the first lesson at the home of Aurelia, whose prognostications make the others so nervous that Milton actually flees town. When Wendy discovers Aurelia dead of a cocaine overdose, the intuition that’s helped her solve several murders encourages her to insist that her husband and father ignore Aurelia’s suicide note and investigate. After Bax asks an old friend with ties to dope dealers to sniff around for the source of the cocaine, the friend’s murder makes Wendy even more certain that Aurelia was murdered. She digs up plenty of hidden secrets about the people who visited Aurelia the day of her death, but which of them was worth killing for?

A very Southern mystery with authentic characters, a well-hidden killer, and some helpful bridge tips.