MIMOSAS, MISCHIEF, AND MURDER
by Sara Rosett
What fun is a funeral without a corpse?
Grandpa Franklin was supposed to be surrounded by family, but when relatives come to the funeral home for the final visitation, his casket, with him inside, is missing. His grandson’s wife Ellie (Mint Juleps, Mayhem, and Murder, 2010, etc.) immediately steps into snooping mode, and not a moment too soon. Grandpa’s house has been burgled. A stranger lies dead at the foot of the stairs. Ellie’s in-laws’ house is set on fire. She receives a threatening anonymous letter, and her husband Mitch becomes the chief suspect when he’s named the principal heir at the reading of the will. While the other relatives bicker and the law-enforcement authorities of Smarr, Ala., seem less than interested, Ellie’s daughter immerses herself in reading grandpa’s memoirs, which may well contain the secret to the dastardly goings-on. But it will take quite a while and many illogical authorial leaps before this connection becomes apparent.
Rosett’s grasp of the minutiae of mommyhood is excellent, albeit tedious. Otherwise, her plotting and characterization are barely there.