Glory Martine is
the primary owner of a fun souvenir shop in Keyhole Bay, Florida.
Her cousin, Peter, is the co-owner, but with a lesser percentage
of ownership, so Glory calls the shots. For the most part,
Peter likes to get his ideas for improvement across in an
often-condescending manner, one that riles Glory every time.
Southern Treasures is the name of the shop, and although Glory
and Peter own the business now, they inherited it from their
late Uncle Louis. Uncle Louis remains in the shop every day,
often making his opinions known through the shop’s parrot,
Bluebeard. Uncle Louis’ ghost inhabits the parrot and
the conversations that go on are hilarious.
When a bank auditor comes to town to figure out what was going
on at the local bank, residents are wary. They don’t
want their bank to fold, but everyone wants to find out what
happened to the money that was funding a new swanky housing
project, which was abruptly halted.
It doesn’t take long for someone to
murder the auditor, the smart and sharply dressed Bridget
McKenna, who Glory and her best friend, Karen, have taken
a liking too. The local police think that Bridget died of
a self-inflicted overdose, but neither Glory nor Bridget’s
half-brother, Bradford, who came to town to take over the
audit, believe that for a minute.
Who would have had it in for Bridget enough
to murder her? Or maybe a bank official or someone from the
development project? Perhaps a local involved in the financial
scandal? On the other hand, does her death have to do with
something more personal, something closer to home?
Having been involved with murder investigations
before, Glory isn’t afraid to set out to find the truth.
Luckily, she has her friends, including semi-boyfriend, Jake,
and Bluebeard (aka Uncle Louis) to help her find the clues
and sort them out.
What a fun mystery series this is! Fifield’s
writing gets better with each book, and I very much enjoy
how carefully she plots out her stories. If Keyhole Bay were
a real place, I’d love to visit, mostly to see Bluebeard
and buy a souvenir or two, but also to watch Glory, and Karen,
and Jake and all of the other characters come to life. The
cover art on this book is outstanding and conveys the essence
of Southern Treasures exactly as I’d pictured it.
This mystery is set in July and is a good diversion for those
of us in the middle of a cold winter. You won’t go wrong
with Murder Sends a Postcard, and you don’t
need to read the previous books to enjoy it, but I recommend
that you buy all three. I give this a Five Haunted Parrot
rating!
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