From Publishers Weekly
Sixtyish sisters Patricia Anne and Mary Alice return for more wacky fun and adventure in their seventh mystery in this popular series from Agatha-winner George. Soon after returning home to Birmingham, Ala., from Christmas in Poland, Patricia Anne and Mary Alice agree to help their cousin Luke track down his wife of 40 years, Virginia, who's run off with a house painter-cum-preacher with the Salinger-esque name of Holden Crawford. They start their search at Crawford's Jesus is Our Life and Heaven Hereafter Church, where someone hits Luke over the head and the two sisters find the neatly laid out body of an unknown woman in a pew. While Luke is in the hospital, the renegade preacher turns up in Virginia's car, dead of a snakebite. Patricia Anne and Mary Alice, aided by the local sheriff, unearth plenty of signs of jealousy, blackmail and adultery as they strive to clear Virginia's name and get to the bottom of her disappearance. Hilarious dialogue and small details (pimento cheese sandwiches?!) enrich a plot that's spread thin over past events and secondary players. Some questions are left unresolved, while othersAless important to the storyAare addressed by a person who appears only in the final chapters. Despite a weak ending, the eccentric characters and southern flavor should endear the book to cozy readers. George has written another genuinely funny mystery, and fans will be glad to see many familiar faces from earlier escapades. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Petite Patricia Anne and hefty Mary Alice, series sister-sleuths in their sixties, hasten to the aid of their cousin Luke, whose wife has apparently run off with a painter. They search for the woman and discover a dead body in a "snake-handling" church; much-married Mary Alice meets and flirts with the investigating sheriff; police find the painter dead; and someone "hides" a rattlesnake in Mary Alice's car. Loads of excitement, then, accompanied by sisterly repartee, mostly humorous family complications and narrow escapes; light reading for most collections. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
The "southern sisters" of Birmingham, Alabama, grow in depth and delight in their latest adventure. Mary Alice, called Sister, is a large figure of a woman: she keeps revising her age downward and now is not much older than Patricia Anne, or Mouse, who is small, feisty, and sixtyish. Sister and Mouse have just returned from Warsaw, where Mouse's newly married daughter is living. Their lugubrious cousin Luke turns up to say his wife of a zillion years has run off with the house painter, and soon the sisters are embroiled in the search for the errant Virginia. The trail leads to a church famed for its snake handlers--the house painter was also a preacher there--and the murder of both the painter-preacher and his lovely daughter-in-law. Sister and Mouse tackle all of this with generous helpings of sororal sniping, loving e-mails from Warsaw, large plates of food, and a keen eye for family foibles. They make great company. GraceAnne A. DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


From Kirkus Reviews
Here, again, comes Luke Nelson, a.k.a. Pukey Lukey, chronically carsick cousin to those redoubtable southern matrons Patricia Ann Hollowell and Mary Alice Crane (Murder Shoots the Bull, 1999, etc.). The sisters, just back from their Christmas visit to Patricia Ann's daughter Haley in Warsaw, are eagerly awaiting the arrival of David Anthony, first son of Mary Alice's daughter Debbie and naturally conceived sibling to her turkey-baster twins Fay and May. But family being family, they can't shrink from helping Lukey find his bride of 40-some years, Virginia, who ran off with Monk Crawford, itinerant preacher and part-time house painter who did just the best job on her soffits. Tracking the missing pair to the Church of Jesus is Our Life and Heaven Hereafter, where Monk ministers to the good people of Chandler Mountain by handling rattlesnakes and drinking strychnine, they find Monk isn't home; instead, laid neatly on a pew, is the body of his daughter-in-law Susan. Moved by Susan's downtrodden sister, Betsy Mahall, Patricia Ann sees fit to investigate, remarking all the way how childish and selfish--not to mention gluttonous--her sister is (unlike her thoughtful, sensible, size-six self). But Mary Alice helps investigate, too, if only to impress her new beau, Sheriff Virgil Stuckey, smitten at his first sight of Mary Alice in the purple leather boots she brought back from Poland. Complaining about her sister's foibles leaves little time for detection, so it's lucky for Patricia Ann that the solution to the case virtually falls into her lap. But beware--this southern saga is syrupy enough to upset tummies stronger than Luke's. -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Southern sisters' cousin Pukey Lukey is in a terrible state. His wife, Virginia, has run off with a housepainting preacher. And that's just the start of his trouble. Because before Patricia Anne and Mary Alice can help Pukey Lukey find his beloved Virginia, they'll discover that all is not heavenly in the Church of Jesus Is Our Life and Heaven Hereafter, where the faithful are into snake-handling, the holy men are engaged in a venomous war, and a killer has left Pukey with a huge lump on his head -- and a dead redhead by his side.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Those laughable, lovable Southern Sisters, sensible Patricia Ann and her off-the-wall sibling, Mary Alice, are just back from vacation in time to be greeted by cousin Pukey Lukey, who's in a terrible state. His wife of 40 years has run off with a housepainter/preacher and he's begging the sisters to help him chase down the pair. But when the three start snooping around the sacred grounds at the top of Mount Chandler, they find a dead body. Mary Alice and Patricia Anne have plenty of questions to ask, including how Luke's still-missing wife fits into the picture—and who tossed a live rattlesnake intot he sisters' very own car.

About the Author:

Anne George is the Agatha Award-winning author of six previous Southern Sisters mysteries. She lives outside Birmingham, AL.

FROM THE CRITICS

Toby Bromberg - Romantic Times

Those sixtyish southern sisters Patricia Anne and Mary Alice get a call from their cousin Luke, who￯﾿ﾽs in despair, for his wife Virginia has run off with a preacher.

The sisters go with Luke to the church of Virginia￯﾿ﾽs "beloved." When Luke doesn￯﾿ﾽt come out, the sisters go in to find him unconscious near a dead woman on a pew. There￯﾿ﾽs no sign of Virginia.

The woman￯﾿ﾽs death does allow Mary Alice to meet Sheriff Virgil Stuckey. (She thinks he looks like Cary Grant, everyone else says Willard Scott.) Then Virginia￯﾿ﾽs car is discovered with another corpse in it, but still no Virginia.

Reading about these southern sisters is like a visit with old friends If you have never had the pleasure of meeting them, Murder Carries A Torch makes for an excellent starting point.

Birmingham magazine

Beautifully captures the rhythm of this dialogue...interweaves humor with mystery and plain good writing to bring us a real vision of the time and place....I haven't been this excited about a mystery series since the Hardy Boys.

Library Journal

Petite Patricia Anne and hefty Mary Alice, series sister-sleuths in their sixties, hasten to the aid of their cousin Luke, whose wife has apparently run off with a painter. They search for the woman and discover a dead body in a "snake-handling" church; much-married Mary Alice meets and flirts with the investigating sheriff; police find the painter dead; and someone "hides" a rattlesnake in Mary Alice's car. Loads of excitement, then, accompanied by sisterly repartee, mostly humorous family complications and narrow escapes; light reading for most collections. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

Kirkus Reviews

Here, again, comes Luke Nelson, a.k.a. Pukey Lukey, chronically carsick cousin to those redoubtable southern matrons Patricia Ann Hollowell and Mary Alice Crane (Murder Shoots the Bull, 1999, etc.). The sisters, just back from their Christmas visit to Patricia Ann's daughter Haley in Warsaw, are eagerly awaiting the arrival of David Anthony, first son of Mary Alice's daughter Debbie and naturally conceived sibling to her turkey-baster twins Fay and May. But family being family, they can't shrink from helping Lukey find his bride of 40-some years, Virginia, who ran off with Monk Crawford, itinerant preacher and part-time house painter who did just the best job on her soffits. Tracking the missing pair to the Church of Jesus is Our Life and Heaven Hereafter, where Monk ministers to the good people of Chandler Mountain by handling rattlesnakes and drinking strychnine, they find Monk isn't home; instead, laid neatly on a pew, is the body of his daughter-in-law Susan. Moved by Susan's downtrodden sister, Betsy Mahall, Patricia Ann sees fit to investigate, remarking all the way how childish and selfish—not to mention gluttonous—her sister is (unlike her thoughtful, sensible, size-six self). But Mary Alice helps investigate, too, if only to impress her new beau, Sheriff Virgil Stuckey, smitten at his first sight of Mary Alice in the purple leather boots she brought back from Poland. Complaining about her sister's foibles leaves little time for detection, so it's lucky for Patricia Ann that the solution to the case virtually falls into her lap. But beware—this southern saga is syrupy enough to upset tummies stronger than Luke's.