dvlish's Full Review: Mary Kay Andrews - Savannah Blues
Found on the bargain shelf of the local book store, this is a fun story set in a great city filled with romance and mystery. After a nasty divorce from her philandering husband Tal Evans, Eloise “Weezie” Foley is on her own for the first time in a long time. Living in her wedded bliss, blind to what was going on around her; Tal has an affair and leaves her for Caroline. Quite the floozy around town, Caroline moves in as soon as Weezie moves out.
Early in their marriage, Weezie bought and refurbished a historic Savannah townhouse for them to spend their lives together in. An antiques ‘picker’, antiques and their history are her life. Her dream was to someday open an antique store in the backyard carriage house. Her dream was short lived when her husband left her for the other woman and then was awarded the townhouse in the divorce settlement. The floors she lovingly refinished the molding she saved, the historic stained glass she installed, wallpaper she put up, and all her antique furnishings, gone. Even her parking space was now filled by Caroline.
One thing she did retain was the carriage house, twisted in the eyes of her friends and family, Weezie now lives in the backyard of the home occupied by her ex-husband and his mistress turned fiancé. Their relationship is tumultuous at best and Weezie loathes Caroline and the feeling is mutual.
Still longing for the life that once was, Weezie is happily living along, picking antiques and working towards opening her antique store. She is well known in the Savannah antiques circle and never misses an estate sale, always looking for the best stuff to either keep for her own collection or re-sell to the local dealers. When the last heir to the oldest plantation house in Savannah passes away she can’t help but figure a way in to the memorial service so she can check out the furnishings that will surely be sold at an upcoming estate sale.
She convinces her eccentric, restaurant owner, best friend BeBe to camp out with her the night before the sale so she can be one of the first ones in. Crude and sarcastic and hysterically blunt, BeBe is quite entertaining throughout this story. Fiercely loyal to Weezie she agrees to the camp out. Weezie is after a hand made one of a kind cupboard that she saw at the memorial service and two is better the one so they can split up and look for it quickly. Weezie thinks if she can get it for the $15,000 that it was marked at the memorial that she can sell it for twice that and have the money to open her store.
After a bottle of wine in the back of her truck, Weezie needs to use the restroom. She decides to sneak into the house, Beaulieu, the find a bathroom. Besides what would be the harm in taking a sneak preview. She gets more than she bargains for when she opens a linen cabinet. From that point forward Weezie is caught in a murder mystery. Add all this to the fact that her relationship with her parents is strained and that she is the prime suspect and meeting a beau from long ago seems like the worst timing in the world.
This tale is well written with great character development and interaction. There are plenty of twists and turns. Set in an old southern town with all of its southern charm, Savannah is the perfect backdrop for a little bit of murder spun with a little bit of romance. Various colorful characters are introduced as you move along, and the dialogue is very funny and witty. You get a sense of what I imagine to be true southern charm and hospitality. With the descriptive details of the homes, streets and people, you feel like you are transported there, or at least I did.
Pick this up if you need a fun and relatively quick read. Perfect for a lazy summer afternoon by the pool with a glass of lemonade! Well done Mary Kay Andrews. I will be looking for more of your work!
Landing a catch like Talmadge Evans III got Eloise "Weezie" Foley a big house in Savannahs historic district. Divorcing him got her booted into the ca...More at HotBookSale
Landing a catch like Talmadge Evans III got Eloise Weezie Foley a jewel of a town house in Savannah s historic district. Divorcing Tal got her exited ...More at Buy.com
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