Murder in the Corn Maze

July 15, 2019
A Halloween treat turns deadly for a rural Georgia family. In Murder in Her Stocking (2018), McKevett presented the origin story of her franchise detective, Savannah Reid, chronicling her childhood in Georgia under the watchful eye of her granny Stella Reid. Now the author pushes back even further into Stella's past to the time when Savannah finds a corpse near the corn maze Judge Patterson has arranged as a treasured part of the annual holiday festivities. In spite of its advanced stage of decomposition, Stella recognizes the body as that of Becky Dingle, her best friend Elsie Dingle's mother. Finding who killed Becky forces Stella to confront the death of her own mother, part-Cherokee Gola Quinn, who picked cotton alongside Becky long after Emancipation and who suffered the same abuse as other poor women of her time, often at the hands of those closest to them. Stella's search also allows her to develop a special bond with Savannah, clearly the brightest of the unruly Reid brood, as the 12-year-old begins her journey to becoming a true detective. Without losing her sense of humor, McKevett tackles serious issues of women living in poverty. Its focus on history may keep McKevett's second Stella Reid entry from fully developing as a puzzle, but it offers welcome insight into the woman Stella is and the woman Savannah is destined to become. Sure to please McKevett loyalists and other fans of plucky women.

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August 26, 2019
McKevett’s heart-wrenching sequel to 2018’s Murder in Her Stocking explores the early career of California PI Savannah Reid, the author’s main series lead, while living as a child with her headstrong grandmother, Stella Reid, in McGill, Ga., in the 1980s. It’s Halloween, and devoted Stella takes sixth-grader Savannah and the rest of her grandkids to Judge Patterson’s antebellum mansion for the festive corn maze. Inside the maze, Savannah stumbles on a long-dead corpse, still in its Sunday best. Stella immediately recognizes the remains as those of Rebecca Dingle, who went missing years before. Stella can do nothing to dampen single-minded Savannah’s natural investigative inclinations as the girl begins to assist in the crime solving, but she must also protect Savannah from the possibly devastating town and family history the inquiry reveals. The insightful look into the Southern culture of the time and the fascinating backstories of each distinctive character elevate this outing. McKevett transcends the usual cozy and amateur sleuth tropes. Agent: Richard Curtis, Richard Curtis Assoc.

September 1, 2019
Widowed Stella "Granny" Reid is busy raising her seven rambunctious grandchildren in McGill, Georgia, when she gets drawn into another murder investigation (Every Body on Deck, 2017). As she and two of her grandchildren, Savannah and Waycross, look for a way out of a Halloween corn maze, Savannah stumbles upon the partially buried skeleton of a woman who disappeared 40 years earlier. Stella was close to the victim, and she works with Sheriff Manny Gilford as they uncover evidence of a serial killer all those years ago. Precocious 13-year-old Savannah, who wants to be a police officer, assists in the investigation and finds important clues with her library research. Stella and Manny connect the suspicious deaths and disappearances and unmask a killer. Complicating matters, a long-term friendship between Manny and Stella may be turning romantic. Small-town Southern life, friendship, close family ties, and a mature female protagonist add to the appeal of this satisfying cozy, which is a kind of prequel to McKevett's ongoing Savannah Reid series, starring the adult Savannah.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)