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Thoroughly Southern #6
When Will the Dead Lady Sing?
No.6 in series of Patricia Sprinkle - Thoroughly Southern Mystery's.
258 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 1, 2004
11 people are currently reading
149 people want to read
About the author
Patricia Sprinkle
47 books94 followersAka Patricia Houck Sprinkle.
When I met and married Bob, he looked over our budget and demanded, "Why don’t you write a mystery to pay for all the ones you buy?" I immediately knew I wanted to put a body in a building where I’d once worked. However, being over-endowed with the Protestant ethic, I wrote "important" things first and only wrote the mystery in my spare time, so my first mystery, Murder at Markham (reissued by Silver Dagger in 2001), took thirteen years to complete. It took even longer for me to learn that any writing which gives me pleasure is important, whether fiction or non-fiction.
Since 1988 I have written twenty mysteries, four novels, and five non-fiction books. I am grateful to my readers and editors for letting me do what I enjoy most in the world. Bob has concluded that writing is not a profession, it's an obsession--my favorite vacation is to go to a place where somebody else fixes my meals and where I can write more than I do at home, without interruptions. Thanks, if you are one of the readers who keeps my fingers on the keys. I enjoy spending time with you at conferences, book clubs, and signing events.
When I met and married Bob, he looked over our budget and demanded, "Why don’t you write a mystery to pay for all the ones you buy?" I immediately knew I wanted to put a body in a building where I’d once worked. However, being over-endowed with the Protestant ethic, I wrote "important" things first and only wrote the mystery in my spare time, so my first mystery, Murder at Markham (reissued by Silver Dagger in 2001), took thirteen years to complete. It took even longer for me to learn that any writing which gives me pleasure is important, whether fiction or non-fiction.
Since 1988 I have written twenty mysteries, four novels, and five non-fiction books. I am grateful to my readers and editors for letting me do what I enjoy most in the world. Bob has concluded that writing is not a profession, it's an obsession--my favorite vacation is to go to a place where somebody else fixes my meals and where I can write more than I do at home, without interruptions. Thanks, if you are one of the readers who keeps my fingers on the keys. I enjoy spending time with you at conferences, book clubs, and signing events.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
April 8, 2019
This is a fun series and this book was no exception. Mac's past comes back to haunt her and a sprained ankle doesn't slow her down. The characters are well written and the mystery kept me guessing.
April 21, 2020
Lots of authors need a copy editor for their grammar or punctuation, but author Sprinkle needs someone to explain and correct her abysmal mis-understanding of simple economics.
Almost ruining an otherwise mostly enjoyable book, she wrote this sentence, speaking in the voice of her main character, MacLaren Yarbrough: "I still blame politicians for a lot of homelessness in the first place ..." and so far she's on the right track. Politicians and bureaucrats have created such obstacles and barriers to prevent people from starting or running businesses and to prevent affordable housing that it's surprising how little homelessness we have.
But she goes on: "... since if they hadn't refused to raise the minimum wage for over a decade after 1980, a lot of people wouldn't have been forced to choose between buying food and paying rent."
Somehow she, and, alas, so many others, seem to have no faintest understanding that wages are part of the cost and thus affect the eventual price to the buyers.
If wages rise, so will prices --UNLESS there is a corresponding rise in productivity. But that is not possible in so many businesses and industries, such as, for example, fast food: A cook cannot produce more burgers than there are buyers.
Her homeless character is somewhat true to life. And I know because I have conducted one in-depth study of homelessness and another at a distance.
Just as with her homeless character, most, and probably 70 percent or more, are homeless either by choice or, much sadder, because of a mental condition or some substance abuse.
Sprinkle's homeless character has an alcohol problem and would be homeless if the minimum wage had been raised to what I've suggested: $100 an hour. I mean, if it's as easy as passing law, why be chintzy?
Other than that especially dumb comment, Sprinkle does a pretty good job of creating a setting and characters. I've lived right in that area she writes about so it is comfortably familiar.
Plus, to give her the credit she deserves, her plots are inventive enough to bring me back to her other books.
I doubt she'll read this review and maybe learn one basic of economics. I wish she would, though. It's a shame to mar an otherwise pleasant literary outing.
Almost ruining an otherwise mostly enjoyable book, she wrote this sentence, speaking in the voice of her main character, MacLaren Yarbrough: "I still blame politicians for a lot of homelessness in the first place ..." and so far she's on the right track. Politicians and bureaucrats have created such obstacles and barriers to prevent people from starting or running businesses and to prevent affordable housing that it's surprising how little homelessness we have.
But she goes on: "... since if they hadn't refused to raise the minimum wage for over a decade after 1980, a lot of people wouldn't have been forced to choose between buying food and paying rent."
Somehow she, and, alas, so many others, seem to have no faintest understanding that wages are part of the cost and thus affect the eventual price to the buyers.
If wages rise, so will prices --UNLESS there is a corresponding rise in productivity. But that is not possible in so many businesses and industries, such as, for example, fast food: A cook cannot produce more burgers than there are buyers.
Her homeless character is somewhat true to life. And I know because I have conducted one in-depth study of homelessness and another at a distance.
Just as with her homeless character, most, and probably 70 percent or more, are homeless either by choice or, much sadder, because of a mental condition or some substance abuse.
Sprinkle's homeless character has an alcohol problem and would be homeless if the minimum wage had been raised to what I've suggested: $100 an hour. I mean, if it's as easy as passing law, why be chintzy?
Other than that especially dumb comment, Sprinkle does a pretty good job of creating a setting and characters. I've lived right in that area she writes about so it is comfortably familiar.
Plus, to give her the credit she deserves, her plots are inventive enough to bring me back to her other books.
I doubt she'll read this review and maybe learn one basic of economics. I wish she would, though. It's a shame to mar an otherwise pleasant literary outing.
May 13, 2012
This dreadful piece of pop-fiction literally moved at glacial pace for almost the entire first half; a murder mystery w/o a murder. When it finally found its mystery it livened up and I made enjoyable progress (the only thing that rescued it from 1-star). And then it crashed back down to reality with a clunky & cliche 'reveal' that left me wondering how it ever got past the editor.
**rolls eyes**
and then there was the hackneyed political swipe about minimum wage in the 80's (page 252) that was so oddly irrelevant and out-of-place that you almost want to tear the page out.
The next time I cross paths with a Patricia Sprinkle book will be TOO SOON!
**rolls eyes**
and then there was the hackneyed political swipe about minimum wage in the 80's (page 252) that was so oddly irrelevant and out-of-place that you almost want to tear the page out.
The next time I cross paths with a Patricia Sprinkle book will be TOO SOON!
September 29, 2008
I continue to enjoy this series and the people and situations that MacLaren comes across. When I read this series it is definitely with a southern accent. And I find myself laughing out loud at some of the descriptions.
January 3, 2016
Continues to be a nice, wholesome mystery series that I'll be happy to continue to follow. It keeps going with interesting characters that are easy to remember & like. A 3.5 is a more accurate rating!
October 11, 2007
An old fashioned mystery series, where we meet all the chacarters, someone dies, then spend the rest of the time figuring out who did it, with a "thoroughly southern" bent. Enjoyable distraction.
November 8, 2007
Lighthearted Mystery Series about a sweet-ol', little southern Lady...
February 6, 2015
Mac's old boyfriend might be the killer in this book. It was a great read and to see how Mac gets herself out of this situation.
May 18, 2014
An old flame of MacLaren's show up in Hopemore stumping for his son who is running for political office. Fun read. Really enjoyed the characters.
April 29, 2015
Not great literature but I enjoyed it. Southern author, set in Georgia.
May 12, 2023
I don't remember whether I've ever said it in a Goodreads review, but I know I've said it many times over the years - while I don't want to have to read page after page of blather before getting to the crime a mystery novel, I don't necessarily want to have blood splash me in the face on page 1 either. Except for official homicide detectives, those who investigate murders (alas, you can't find a mystery involving anything else, even though the greatest detective of them all, Sherlock Holmes, frequently handled cases that didn't involve death) don't wake up to dead bodies every day.
In this novel the corpse doesn't appear till way into the book. And by the time the main character, MacLaren Yarbrough, begins working on the case, the book's almost over. Instead of being an investigator, she's busy going about her life as the part owner of a nursery, and as a magistrate in Georgia (I nearly wrote "small town," but by my standards a town over 10,000 isn't small). She's busy dealing with a part of her past that she's never told her husband, and she's busy trying to deal with a political family that's blown annoyingly into town.
I like it. But what I really like here is that this is a thoroughly southern book. I've never lived in Georgia - indeed, I've only visited for a couple or three days, and that was years ago - but though I wasn't born in the south I lived there for a large portion of my life, and it's my adopted region (specifically, I've adopted Texas as my home state). Patricia Sprinkle isn't one of those southern authors who tries to divest their writing of everything that's distinctively southern; on the contrary, this book is as densely southern as the humidity on a southern summer afternoon. Even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to "hear" these characters speak in a Yankee accent; their word choices and rhythms are as southern as sweet tea. I'd rather be in Texas, but reading this book takes me to Georgia, and that's all right. If I can't be in Texas - and right now I can't - then I'd sooner be in Georgia than anywhere outside of Dixie, even if I have to travel there in a book.
In this novel the corpse doesn't appear till way into the book. And by the time the main character, MacLaren Yarbrough, begins working on the case, the book's almost over. Instead of being an investigator, she's busy going about her life as the part owner of a nursery, and as a magistrate in Georgia (I nearly wrote "small town," but by my standards a town over 10,000 isn't small). She's busy dealing with a part of her past that she's never told her husband, and she's busy trying to deal with a political family that's blown annoyingly into town.
I like it. But what I really like here is that this is a thoroughly southern book. I've never lived in Georgia - indeed, I've only visited for a couple or three days, and that was years ago - but though I wasn't born in the south I lived there for a large portion of my life, and it's my adopted region (specifically, I've adopted Texas as my home state). Patricia Sprinkle isn't one of those southern authors who tries to divest their writing of everything that's distinctively southern; on the contrary, this book is as densely southern as the humidity on a southern summer afternoon. Even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to "hear" these characters speak in a Yankee accent; their word choices and rhythms are as southern as sweet tea. I'd rather be in Texas, but reading this book takes me to Georgia, and that's all right. If I can't be in Texas - and right now I can't - then I'd sooner be in Georgia than anywhere outside of Dixie, even if I have to travel there in a book.
February 8, 2024
It's been a few years since I read a Patricia Sprinkle novel. A friend had recommended them to me a long time ago.
I didn't have a clue as to who did it even after I was told. But it all made sense, it was a fun and quick read, and I sure prefer it to so many of the other "cozy" mysteries I've tried to read.
I didn't have a clue as to who did it even after I was told. But it all made sense, it was a fun and quick read, and I sure prefer it to so many of the other "cozy" mysteries I've tried to read.
November 10, 2019
Again this author sprinkles her book with an underlying theme. This time it was about taking responsibility for ones actions in a world where excuses are common.
June 27, 2021
always enjoy Sprinkle's Thoroughly Southern mysteries
May 19, 2022
I love this series.
July 2, 2022
3 - Good
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews