New York Times bestselling author Miranda James returns to Athena, Mississippi, with an all-new mystery featuring Miss An’gel and Miss Dickce Ducote, two snoopy sisters who are always ready to lend a helping hand. But when a stressed socialite brings murder right to their doorstep, even they have trouble maintaining their Southern hospitality…
With the Mississippi sun beating down, An’gel and Dickce are taking a break to cool off and pet sit their friend Charlie Harris’s cat, Diesel, when their former sorority sister, Rosabelle Sultan, shows up at their door unexpectedly, with her ne’er-do-well adult children not far behind.
Rosabelle’s selfish offspring are desperate to discover what’s in her will, and it soon becomes clear that one of them would kill to get their hands on the inheritance. Suddenly caught up in a deadly tangle of duplicitous suspects and deep-fried motives, it will take all of the sisters’ Southern charm to catch a decidedly ill-mannered killer…
About the Author:
Miranda James is the pseudonym of Dean James, a seventh-generation Mississippian long transplanted to Texas. A mystery fan since the age of ten, he wrote his first novel at the ripe old age of twelve. The only copy of The Mystery of the Willow Key vanished years ago, but since it was highly derivative of the Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden mystery series, that’s probably a good thing.
A medical librarian for nearly twenty years, Dean has published articles on topics in library science, the history of science/medicine, and mystery fiction. His first book, which he co-wrote with fellow librarian Jean Swanson, was By a Woman’s Hand (Berkley; 1994). Jean and Dean won an Agatha Award for Best Mystery Non-Fiction and were nominated by the Mystery Writers of America for the Edgar for Best Critical-Biographical work for this popular reference book. A second edition followed two years later, and Dean and Jean collaborated on two further projects, Killer Books (Berkley; 1998) and The Dick Francis Companion (Berkley; 2003). In all he has co-authored or co-edited six works of mystery reference and one short story anthology. With Elizabeth Foxwell he wrote The Robert B. Parker Companion (Berkley; 200).
His first novel, Cruel as the Grave (Silver Dagger Mysteries) was published in 2000. Since then he has published eighteen more novels, writing under his own name and the pseudonyms Jimmie Ruth Evans and Honor Hartman. In August 2010 he launched a new series writing as Miranda James. The first book under this name, Murder Past Due (Berkley Prime Crime; $7.99) spent four weeks on the extended New York Times bestseller list for mass market paperbacks. The next book in the series, Classified as Murder (Berkley Prime Crime; $7.99), published in May 2011, also hit the NYT list. The third book, File M for Murder (Berkley Prime Crime; $7.99) is out now. The fourth book, Out of Circulation (Berkley Prime Crime; $7.99) debuted at no. 11 on the bestseller list. Book five, The Silence of the Library (Berkley Prime Crime; $7.99) is just out, and there are more books to come in the series.
Dean lives with two young cats, thousands of books, and thinks frequently about killing people – but only in the pages of fiction.
Jennifer’s Review of Bless Her Dead Little Heart
Review (4 Stars): I was very excited when I learned that Miranda James was starting a new series with the characters from The Cat in the Stacks mystery series. The adorable Diesel is sent to stay with An’gel and Dickce Ducote in this story while Charlie is out of town and immediately becomes involved in another murder mystery. Rosabelle Sultan, the over-dramatic sorority sister of the elderly Ducote sisters, makes a surprise visit to the ladies and tells them that her family is trying to kill her. Shortly after, Rosabelle’s entire family appears at their doorstep, intent on determining why their elderly mother left in the middle of the night. Before too long, a dead body is discovered and it is up to the sisters to sort out the family drama and find the identity of the true killer before they claim another victim.
This is a great start to a series and I was enchanted by the elderly Ducote sisters. Their personality and spunk made this an absolute delight to read and I was amazed that they were able to put up with Rosabelle’s family as long as they did. They would have driven me crazy and I would have been arrested for murder. Such a rude and privileged family imposing on the sisters the way that they did. Miranda James is a relatively new author to me but not for long, since I’ve only read Out of Circulation. I fell in love with Diesel and can’t wait to read more about him in The Cat in the Stacks series and spend more time getting to know his owner, Charlie. Bless Her Dead Little Heart was a fun cozy mystery that will have you delighted with its southern sassy charm. I’m looking forward to reading more about the Ducote sisters and spending time again with their southern hospitality in future books of the series.
Giveaway
I’m excited to give away a copy of Bless Her Dead Little Heart. This giveaway is for US Residents only. To be entered in the drawing by October 15th, leave me a comment below:
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