Patricia Sprinkle Did You Declare the Corpse?

Did You Declare the Corpse?

Patricia Sprinkle

Signet, Feb 2006, $6.99, 288 pp.

ISBN 0451217802

Georgia Magistrate MacLaren Yarbrough is visiting the Scottish Highlands for two weeks, but her companion is not her beloved husband Joe Riddley but her friend Laura MacDonald. Joe thinks it is safe to take a fishing vacation with his son and two grandsons because Mac won't have any mysteries to solve or trip over dead bodies. Little does he knows that his worst fears will be realized when a heartless killer tries to murder Mac.

The mystery begins when Mac overhears a person on their tour arguing with the brother-in-law of the laird of Auchnager about a business deal. Before that incident that argumentative individual acted like he was another tourist on a holiday jaunt. While visiting a local church one of the tourists is found lying in a coffin inside the holy facility, the victim of murder. Mac immediately assumes the laird's brother-in-law did the deed until that poor soul winds up in a second coffin. Without meaning to, Mac observes her fellow tourists and asks questions to try to bring the culprits to justice, though she ends up feeling sorry for them even though they killed somebody.

Patricia Sprinkle's latest Thoroughly Southern mystery, although placed in the Scottish Highlands, is still a down home, at times hilarious cozy. This is a mystery Agatha Christie would be proud to claim as her own. The intricate plotting and the eccentric cast of characters are just two of the reasons that DID YOU DELIVER THE CORPSE? is a one sitting reading experience. The heroine is eminently likable and her homespun wisdom instantly endears her to the audience who will want this grandmotherly person to adopt them.