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Sunny Childs Mystery #6
Feet of Clay
Her personal life may be a mess. And no one said her family was sane. But as lead detective at Atlanta's Peachtree Investigations, hard-nosed, fast-talking PI Sunny Childs is always up for cracking a case.
And now starring in her sixth mystery, Sunny is in thick. When her cousin Lee-Lee, a documentary filmmaker who's interviewing convicted murderer and rapist Dale Weedlow, invites Sunny along for the ride, Sunny knows her very presence will probably convince her flighty cousin that the sicko's been framed. But Sunny ends up going, and to her surprise, things are, indeed, not as they seem.
Evidence of a cover-up looms behind the gentility of the local politics, business, and law enforcement, and as usual, Sunny finds herself deep into the original murder case. But with the locals closing their doors in her face and the time before the convict's execution running short, Sunny has to hurry if she's going to get to the bottom of the six-year-old murders of two girls whose feet had sunk deep into the Southern clay.
Praise for Ruth Birmingham and Ace Atlanta PI Sunny Childs
"Witty, irreverent."--Harlan Coben, author of Fade Away
"Top-notch . . . The further adventures of Sunny Childs will be most welcome."--Booklist
"A terrific series."--Midwest Book Review
"Birmingham has established herself as the Queen of Atlanta crime fiction. Read and enjoy."--Fred Willard, author of Down on Ponce
"Gets better with each installment."--Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
"Sunny Childs is a wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am great read."--J. A. Jance, author of Name Withheld
And now starring in her sixth mystery, Sunny is in thick. When her cousin Lee-Lee, a documentary filmmaker who's interviewing convicted murderer and rapist Dale Weedlow, invites Sunny along for the ride, Sunny knows her very presence will probably convince her flighty cousin that the sicko's been framed. But Sunny ends up going, and to her surprise, things are, indeed, not as they seem.
Evidence of a cover-up looms behind the gentility of the local politics, business, and law enforcement, and as usual, Sunny finds herself deep into the original murder case. But with the locals closing their doors in her face and the time before the convict's execution running short, Sunny has to hurry if she's going to get to the bottom of the six-year-old murders of two girls whose feet had sunk deep into the Southern clay.
Praise for Ruth Birmingham and Ace Atlanta PI Sunny Childs
"Witty, irreverent."--Harlan Coben, author of Fade Away
"Top-notch . . . The further adventures of Sunny Childs will be most welcome."--Booklist
"A terrific series."--Midwest Book Review
"Birmingham has established herself as the Queen of Atlanta crime fiction. Read and enjoy."--Fred Willard, author of Down on Ponce
"Gets better with each installment."--Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
"Sunny Childs is a wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am great read."--J. A. Jance, author of Name Withheld
- GenresMysteryMystery Thriller
256 pages, Hardcover
First published May 2, 2006
1 person is currently reading
17 people want to read
About the author
Ruth Birmingham
10 books3 followersAlso writes under the pseudonyms of Lynn Abercrombie and legal name Walter Sorrells.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 19, 2020
OK so.... objectively this was a good book. Well paced, interesting mystery, not bad in the verbage department. There was nothing per se wrong with it.
But wow this was not for me. I disliked every character and their oft times self-serving attitudes. Ther is casual unaddressed racism, not by the protagonists but they don't seem to care much about it either, and just a general sense of-- well it sucks that that tragic thing happened but oh well. Corruption and greed? Eh. That sort of thing happens.
Like I get that it's supposed to be a comedy, but it doesn't align with my sense of humor at all.
But wow this was not for me. I disliked every character and their oft times self-serving attitudes. Ther is casual unaddressed racism, not by the protagonists but they don't seem to care much about it either, and just a general sense of-- well it sucks that that tragic thing happened but oh well. Corruption and greed? Eh. That sort of thing happens.
Like I get that it's supposed to be a comedy, but it doesn't align with my sense of humor at all.
May 6, 2024
A library find.
May2024.
Written well, but not my kind of story.
May2024.
Written well, but not my kind of story.
March 28, 2025
eccch. It's ok.
June 21, 2008
Okay, I blew through Feet of Clay yesterday by Ruth Birmingham aka Walter Sorrells. He's a good writer. Great tension. Interesting plot twists and red herrings. However, I'd have to agree with a friend's assessment of his YA books, the ending was just too over-the-top unbelieveable.
SPOILER ALERT!!!
The story was great until the last few chapters where the heroine (Sunny Childs) who has been shot in the stomache and is bleeding out drives herself, at speeds exceeding 105mph, to the capital building to hand-deliver a tape recorded confession to the governor to keep a man on death-row from being executed a few minutes before his scheduled execution. Yes, and when she hits Atlanta traffic gridlock, what does she do? She gets out and finishes running the two miles to the state building. Sorry. I think not!
I would have bought the ending if the policeman who stopped her for speeding on the way to the state building--who by the way she had to convince she was telling the truth by showing him her bleeding wound--had actually driven her to the state building instead of the ending I got. Sigh.
Otherwise, I did really like the book, except for the dratted ending! :)
SPOILER ALERT!!!
The story was great until the last few chapters where the heroine (Sunny Childs) who has been shot in the stomache and is bleeding out drives herself, at speeds exceeding 105mph, to the capital building to hand-deliver a tape recorded confession to the governor to keep a man on death-row from being executed a few minutes before his scheduled execution. Yes, and when she hits Atlanta traffic gridlock, what does she do? She gets out and finishes running the two miles to the state building. Sorry. I think not!
I would have bought the ending if the policeman who stopped her for speeding on the way to the state building--who by the way she had to convince she was telling the truth by showing him her bleeding wound--had actually driven her to the state building instead of the ending I got. Sigh.
Otherwise, I did really like the book, except for the dratted ending! :)
April 30, 2015
Believability isn't high on my list of criteria for a good cozy mystery. Being entertaining is. With that in mind, I found this to be better than the average cozy mystery I've encountered. I enjoyed the frequent tongue-in-cheek humor, and I had fun cheering for fast-talking, quick-thinking, gun-slinging, private-detective Sunny Childs. I don't get drawn into cozy mystery series very often, but this may be an exception. I thought this was a solid 3.5 stars but rounded up to 4 because I generally prefer to round up rather than down on the GR scale.
June 20, 2015
Sunny teams up with her crazy, impetuous cousin Lee-Lee to investigate a guy on death row down in a little rural Georgia town ruled by the kaolin company. This takes her away from Atlanta and her boyfriend and dumps straight in Crazyville, ruled by the president of the local kaolin company and one of the few employers in town. With only hours to go until the inmate is executed, Sunny tries to uncover the real murderer who killed two young women, hung them up, and eviscerated them. I enjoyed this mystery, and the byplay between Sunny and her annoying cousin.
July 23, 2008
I actually read this book by accident. I thought it was the same author of Blue Plate Special. Only just realized this title is the same for 2 different authors. This is part of a series.
It was actually okay. Not realistic at all and a bit corny but an easy read.
It was actually okay. Not realistic at all and a bit corny but an easy read.
April 17, 2012
Was hoping I would really like this book as I used to live in Georgia and miss it terribly. Probably won't read anymore in this series. Clichéd.
June 19, 2013
Weird juxtaposition of small town Southern with quirks and a brutal/sexual crime.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews