This reviewer has imagined a lot of things in her lifetime,
but reading a book narrated by a Basset Hound named Elvis
that believes he is "The King" reincarnate, has never once
crossed my mind. Thank goodness that Peggy Webb has a
much better imagination than I.
Callie Valentine Jones is in a custody battle with her soon-
to-be ex-husband, Jack, over Elvis, a failed show dog
because one ear is longer than the other. Callie still
loves Jack, but he is too mysterious and only Elvis knows
what the man does for a living, and he ain't talking.
Callie owns a beauty salon and pours all of her profits
into Ruby Nell's gambling habit -- Ruby Nell is Callie's
mother. Not willingly, of course, but she just doesn't
know how to say 'no'. Her best friend is also her cousin,
Lovie, who owns a catering business, Lovie's Lucious Eats,
but she is the hottest thing on the menu. Uncle Charlie
is probably the most stable one in the Valentine family; he
is a mortician and owns the Eternal Rest Funeral Home whose
motto is "Let the Good Times Roll".
When the late Leonard Laton, M. D. leaves the majority of
his real estate holdings and his money to a Las Vegas
dancer named Bubbles Malone, it naturally upsets all of his
greedy relatives. After the viewing, the good doctor's
body disappears, so it is fortunate that the funeral is
being delayed until one of his daughters can arrive from
the Serengetti. It is up to Callie and Lovie to find and
retrieve the body. Sounds like a Road Trip to me.
ELVIS AND THE DEARLY DEPARTED is a hoot, and is full of
bawdy humor, colorful, appealing and mostly quirky
characters, and an offbeat storyline that is reminiscent
of "A Week-End at Bernies" -- but our version would star
Callie and Lovie doing their impressions of that New Jersey
bounty hunter and her sidekick.
This is the first book in the "Elvis Mysteries" and we can
look forward to ELVIS AND THE GRATEFUL DEAD later this
year. It is good to have Peggy Webb back doing what she
does best -- making us laugh-out-loud while enjoying one of
her stories!
They say you can't get to Heaven without passing through
the Eternal Rest Funeral Home. And no one gets into Eternal
Rest without passing muster with Elvis-the basset hound
who's convinced he's the reincarnation of the King of Rock
`n' Roll. Brewing up a big ol' pitcher of Mississippi
mystery, Peggy Webb's delightful new series is as
intoxicating as the Delta breeze.
Normally, Callie
Valentine Jones spends her days fixing up the hairdos of the
dead, but when the corpse of local, prominent physician Dr.
Leonard Laton goes missing, it's bad for business. So Callie
and her oversexed cousin Lovie (Eternal Rest's resident wake
caterer) have no choice but to go in hot pursuit of the
recently embalmed, last seen bound for Vegas by way of
downtown Tupelo.
Now Elvis may be nothin' but a hound
dog, but he knows a mystery when he smells one. But keeping
his human mom from wandering off the trail isn't easy when
she's back in the arms of her on-again, off-again ex, Jack.
Not to mention the angry mourners squabbling over the estate
of the late doctor inside the not-so-restful halls of
Eternal Rest. Or the French poodle sniffing around for a
hunk of Elvis' burning love.
In Vegas, Callie and
Lovie hit the jackpot when they find the dearly departed
inside a freezer owned by his showgirl mistress, Bubble
Malone. But they're luck runs out when Bubble decides to
join her man in the afterlife. With the poisonous Laton
family tree providing plenty of rotten suspects, Callie's
determined to crack this case-with a little help from that
irresistible piece of man she used to call her husband-and
have a killer singing "Jailhouse Rock" in time for her next
haircutting appointment.
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