Bobbye Terry has written a truly witty novel packed full of hilarious characters with a mystery to boot! The novel begins by letting you know that Roxie Turner has been threatening to kill Georgia Collins for years. She even has a list of how she’s going to accomplish the dirty deed. And she’s told everyone in town all the details on her list. Will Roxie bake a cupcake, put arsenic in it, and give it to Georgia? Or perhaps put antibiotics in Georgia’s toothpaste and hope for an allergic reaction? Maybe place a car bomb underneath Georgia’s car? Could Roxie sneak into Georgia’s house undetected and asphyxiate her with a pillow while she’s asleep? Or could Roxie throw a paring knife and have it hit Georgia in her eye? How about knocking Georgia out and throwing her off the cliffs onto the rocks of the Pamlico Sound? Folks are dropping like flies in Briny Bay. Someone is using Roxie’s list to murder Georgia, her family and friends. Will it ever stop?
Briny Bay has it all, beginning with Trixie’s “restaurant” the Happy Daze Diner and ending with Roxie’s boutique, Marriage with Style. Not only can you chow down on the best icebox lemon pie at the diner, but you can catch up on the latest gossip or the latest murder. Trixie and Roxie’s brother Jack, the local lawman, stops in to dish the dirt on the local murders. When Georgia Collins is found dead in the local landfill, Jack tracks his sisters to the Happy Daze. He then hauls them in for questioning by the town detectives to see if Roxie has finally hired a hit man to do Georgia in.
Georgia’s murder is followed by her brother’s murder and her accountant’s murder. The accountant, Frank, had been turned in to the IRS by Georgia for embezzling money from her accounts. Frank spends five years in prison before being released and moving to Greensboro. Georgia frequently travels to Greensboro. Coincidence, I think not!!!
Being from the South, I know that we take pride in parading our eccentric relatives for everyone to see and enjoy. Bobbye Terry has certainly done this with the residents of Briny Bay. I laughed out loud when sisters Trixie and Roxie trail Frank to a hotel in Greensboro and tell the desk clerk that they are Nancy Drew and Nora Charles! And how can you not like Roxie’s husband, Floyd the barber, who spends his time watching a big screen tv in his wall to wall leather man cave. Not to mention that Floyd’s last name is Frye and both Trixie and Roxie frequently refer to him as a couch potato. The only “normal” character is the “hotty” PI Trixie and Roxie hire to help them solve the murders, but the sisters quickly drag him into their insanity.
I can’t believe how much FUN Bobbye Terry packed into this short novel! I’m ready to move to Briny Bay and join Roxie and her sister, Trixie, in their next murder investigation. Thank you Bobbye for a really witty novel that had me laughing from beginning to end and trying to guess which character did the murders. Please, please, please make the next novel longer. I can’t wait!!!
Reviewed on The Romance Reviews by Wicked Tiffy's alter ego Ann
