Sitting in front of Wal-Mart under the hot Texas sun was
definitely uncomfortable, but Phyllis, Carolyn, Eve, and
Sam made the sacrifice for a good cause. The four friends,
roommates, and retired teachers, were doing what needed to
be done to make the bake sale for The Retired Teachers
Association Scholarship Fund a great success. Although
they were seeing plenty of people come and go into the
store, few were stopping for refreshments. As it turned
out, it might have been better if no one had stopped at
all. Marie Tyler, current board member of the Loving
Elementary Parent Teacher Organization, her two children
and her husband could have just waved to Carolyn but they
stopped. Marie might have just asked for some ideas for
the PTO's upcoming bake sale but she asked the women to
run the bake sale at the PTO's fundraising event. Carolyn
might have said no but she didn't. All those small choices
lead to the unfortunate moment where the women are not
just present at the scene of a murder but one of them has
accidentally furnished the killer's weapon.
The four roommates may be retired but they aren't done
living. They each have their own interests: some have been
married, some are have extended family they care about,
some are interested in flirting with Sam, and some are
very good at solving crimes. Phyllis turns out to be a
superb amateur detective and has already solved a previous
murder. With the help of her friends, can she do it again?
Small-towns can be fertile ground for murder mysteries and
it seems that Livia Washburn has created a wonderfully
small-town full of future victims. Her characters are just
the right blend of oddly quirky, impossibly lucky, and
amazingly wise. The set-up and the solution are just the
right degree of confusing to keep the reader wondering if
they've been able to figure things out. A special bonus
are the recipes included at the end of the book.
At this year's school carnival fund-raiser, the obnoxious
president of the Parent Teacher Organization is found
stabbed through the heart with Phyllis Newsom's own
knife,
with traces of incriminating frosting. Clearing her name
will be no piece of cake...
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