Murder in the Corn Maze
Kindle Edition, 304 pages
Published September 24th 2019 by Kensington
Goodreads synopsis:
The roots of the Moonlight Magnolia Detective Agency reach back to the 1980s in the little town of McGill, Georgia—where Stella Reid and her seven grandkids enjoy some spooky Halloween fun and stumble into murder . . .
It doesn’t take cash, just some good old-fashioned creativity, to turn a pillowcase into a ghost costume or a trashcan into a suit of armor. So even if she has to stick to a budget, Stella Reid always makes holidays like Halloween memorable for twelve-year-old Savannah and the rest of her grandchildren.
After joining the other townspeople for trick-or-treating and the annual parade down Main Street, Granny Reid and the kids head to Judge Patterson’s antebellum mansion, where a corn maze awaits. Most of the youngsters are too terrified to make it all the way to the middle. It’s lucky for them, because when Savannah and Granny get there, it proves to be even scarier than they expected—half buried in the mud at the center of the maze lies a human skull.
The grisly discovery uncovers a mystery that stretches back decades—and seems to be related to the long-unsolved murder of Granny Reid’s own part-Cherokee mother. After all this time, the culprit may be long gone . . . or still hiding among them. It’ll be up to Granny to dig into this Southern town’s history and a mess of old family secrets .
***
4.5 Stars
This is the second book in the Granny Reid Mystery series by G.A. McKevett.
Wow. I felt so sorry for Granny Reid and her grandkids. They had so little and the people who had so much were just dumb buttheads who didn’t appreciate all that they had acquired. I truly felt like this was almost a throwback to a different time when people treated their slaves so badly. I felt the same impact here with Granny and her grandkids. I try to imagine my own mother who is a grandma now trying to take care of a gaggle of kids like that. There is no way she would be able to keep up. But I guess you have to do what you have to do in these situations.
Granny couldn’t afford the one dollar entry fee into the Haunted Corn Maze. But Granny is just spunky and doesn’t take no for an answer. She will work for her and her grandkids way in. The uppity Judge looks down his nose at them all even when her kiddos win the costume contest then have to giveaway their prize to younger children who thought they had won. So grown up of them. More grown up than the judge acted during this story.
On their way through the maze, they lose their way and stumble over a dead body that Granny recognizes. The woman found was thought to have left town long ago. Now the police are finding clues similar to the death of Granny’s own mother. Could they have a serial killer on their hands.
I felt a bit depressed at the beginning just for the sake of how rude some of the people were to the Reids. I contemplated putting the book down since it made me so uncomfortable but I powered through it and I am so glad I did. The book lightened up and gave us some really fun scenes like when Granny cooked the Judge’s food wrong just to get his goat. Then another time Granny needed someone to watch the kids and she gave the town’s biggest gossip a tall tale about her and the sheriff Manny Gilford and some juicy details when she returned.
Overall, I really enjoyed this and will definitely be picking up another book by this author and adding to my must read list.
Highly recommended.
I received this as an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) in return for an honest review. I thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read this title.
No comments:
Post a Comment