As Elizabeth Lynn Casey’s latest Sewing Circle mystery opens, Tori Sinclair is happily settling into Sweet Briar, South Carolina. She has her dream job as the director of the town’s library. She is engaged to Milo Wentworth, a handsome and kind elementary-school teacher. Perhaps most important, she is now firmly ensconced in the town’s sewing circle, which has become a family to her. How could life get any better? Maybe being in a movie? Everyone is ecstatic about the news that their town is being used as a movie location, and Tori is one of the lucky few chosen as an extra. But then a murder occurs, and her friends are implicated. Tori is determined to prove their innocence to protect her new-found family.
Like most cozy-mystery small towns, Sweet Briar has its share of eccentrics, most notably Leona Elkin. Leona is free with criticism and make-up tips (“She’d be a whole lot prettier if she would take the time to perfect a few of the techniques I’ve shared with her over the past few years”), sometimes combining the two. Although in her sixties, Leona is as sure of her charms as a supermodel. She talks her way onto the movie set, and, in short order, is spending time with the film’s leading man, drawing the antagonism of the leading lady, and setting the stage for murder. Not that anyone is particularly surprised. As Leona says, “Until Victoria moved to town, there hadn’t been any murders here at all. Then, poof, she shows up bringing all that Chicago karma with her and look what’s happened.”
Yes, disorder may reign temporarily, but there’s never really any doubt of the outcome. Disruptions are dealt with, and things return to normal. After all, Tori has a wedding to plan. And Leona has many more men to conquer.
Although sixth in Casey’s Southern Sewing Circle mysteries, Reap What You Sew includes enough background detail so new readers are not lost while fans are not bored. Reap What You Sew is a quick, fun read with plenty of entertaining characters.
To celebrate the fourth anniversary of Mysteries & More in Nashville, Elizabeth Lynn Casey will discuss and sign copies of Reap What You Sew on April 7 at 2 p.m. Click here for details.
Tagged: Fiction
