Curing the Blues with a New Pair of Shoes

June 15, 2009
When Elvis Presley's celebrated blue suede shoes, the prize exhibit at an Elvis festival in Salt Lick, Tex., go missing in Cash's cute fifth cowgirl crime novel (after Don't Make Me Choose Between Me and My Shoes
), the Domestic Equalizers (and Styling Station beauty operators), Debbie Sue Overstreet and Edwina Perkins-Martin, investigate. Soon after Debbie and Edwina decide to substitute an old pair of slippers belonging to Ed's husband for the real item, they discover that the person who sent them the blue suede shoes, “Adolf Sielvami, Keeper for the King Museum” in Las Vegas, appears not to exist. In a sweet subplot, unrepentant matchmakers Debbie Sue and Edwina promote the fumbling romance between Fort Worth Star-Telegram
journalist Avery Deaton and Dallas Morning News
rookie sports reporter Sam Carter. As Salt Lick fills with Elvis lovers, the pseudonymous Cash (a Texas writing-sisters duo) taps winningly into the Elvis myth.