Lethal in Old Lace

January 29, 2018
Brown graduates to hardcover with her farcical fifth Consignment Shop mystery set in Savannah, Ga. (after 2015’s Demise in Denim). When Willie Fishbine, a resident of the Sleepy Pines Retirement Home, dies under suspicious circumstances, Reagan Summerside, the owner of the Prissy Fox Consignment Shop, and her friends contrive to find the killer, which involves postponing Willie’s funeral by hiding the body. The subsequent death of Bonnie Sue McGrath, another Sleepy Pines resident, leads to trouble for sisters and professional mourners Elsie and Annie Fritz after her corpse winds up in their car. Meanwhile, Reagan discovers a strange link between womanizer Dexter Thomas and her sleazy ex-husband, Hollis Beaumont, that may relate to the deaths. She must also plan her wedding with Walker Boone, “the hunkiest guy in all Savannah.” Fans of broad humor (“I can’t believe the light of my life, the song in my soul, the gravy on my mashed potatoes is gone, never to return”) will find plenty to like in this cornpone cozy.