Miss Julia Rocks the Cradle

January 24, 2011
At the start of Ross's slow-moving 12th Miss Julia mystery set in Abbotsville, N.C. (after 2010's Miss Julia Renews Her Vows), Miss Julia's stepson, Lloyd, a student in Miss Petty's social studies class, breathlessly tells Julia, "They found a body in Miss Petty's outhouse" (actually, the teacher's toolshed). Embezzler and ex-con Richard Stroud appears to have died of natural causes while spying on his former business partner, Thurlow Jones. Miss Julia never recovered the money Richard once stole from her, and Richard had again been forging checks on her account. In one exciting development in an otherwise placid plot, Hazel Marie Pickens gives birth to twins during a blizzard attended by, among others, Miss Julia, home health care professional Etta Mae Wiggins, and Lloyd, whose dad was Miss Julia's late two-timing husband, Wesley Lloyd Springer. The sweet down-home humor only partly redeems a thin and far-fetched mystery. 5-city author tour.

January 15, 2011

Steel magnolias kick butt.

It's a dark and snowy night. The power is out and cars are stranded. Hazel Marie isn't due for two more weeks, but her twins decide they're ready right now. So Miss Julia (Miss Julia Renews Her Vows, 2010, etc.), Lillian and Etta Mae deliver them while the menfolk—Mr. Pickens, the daddy, and Sam, Miss Julia's second husband—are off in Raleigh on business. They return to Abbotsville to colic and chaos. A body has been found in the schoolteacher Miss Petty's tool shed, and Miss Julia is overdrawn at the bank because someone's forged her name on stolen checks. Thurlow Jones, whose backyard abuts Miss Petty's, insinuates that she often had gentlemen callers late at night. Was one of them Richard Stroud, the deceased, just recently paroled after financial shenanigans that cost Miss Julia $100,000? To find out, elderly, hyper-inquisitive Miss Julia reconnoiters the tool shed in the wee hours, drives Sam from their home by not confiding in him and sets tongues wagging about their relationship. The babies cry. The babies need changing. The babies settle down with pacifiers. Through it all, Miss Julia befriends Pastor Poppy, the new assistant pastor, who convinces Thurlow that women have a place in the ministry. 

Sanctimonious and then some, with much quoting of Scripture and gossip from the neighbors.

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November 15, 2010

Miss Julia is too busy helping pregnant Hazel Marie get ready for her due date to worry much about the dead body discovered in a neighbor's tool shed--and, anyway, she promised not to get involved. Then again, why is someone obviously innocent being blamed for the crime? Ross has a solid fan base, and her efforts don't seem to be flagging; with a five-city tour.

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.