Thistle and Twigg

Fun characters

Jane Thistle moves to Tullulah, Alabama after her husband, Colonel Thistle dies. She chooses Tullulah, a town which she had passed through years earlier while moving their household to another military base to which her husband had been posted, because of it beauty and quietude. The town had stayed in her head for many, many years.

A snake moves through her house with the movers on her first day in her new home prompting her to purchase some bullets for her pistol. She was a peaceful person, but didn't feel the need to take unnecessary chances living on the edge of a wildlife refuge and privately owned forest on the other sides. Jane meets Phoebe Twigg at the sporting goods store and while the two women are as different as can be imagined, a solid friendship is struck up.

Jane expresses an interest of purchasing a parcel of her neighbor's property to her Realtor and manages to overcome his obvious reluctance to approach Cal Prewitt. They pass several No Trespassing signs only to be shot at in his front yard. This concluded her desire to purchase any of his property.

Cal shows up on Jane's porch that night in a highly inebriated state and the two of them get to know each other over tea. He invites her to visit his house and property the next day. He shows her his firing range and tells her she is free to use it whenever she would like.

Jane takes Phoebe to the range with her, Phoebe has no experience with guns and Jane thinks she would have a good time learning how to shot. Instead of a peaceful afternoon together they find a man shot behind some large rocks at the end of the range...and Cal has disappeared.

Phoebe house is firebombed shortly after she and Jane have dinner together and this sets the pair into motion to discover what exactly is going on in the small town of Tullulah.

Jane and Phoebe really are two entirely different characters. I must admit that I was a little skeptical when I first began reading Phoebe's narrative, but soon I began to really appreciate that the two of them were perfect foils for each other. They are delightful women and I hope that this series continues. I would love to see what other situations these two might end up in together. I heartily recommend this book to anyone who enjoys feisty older characters with interesting personality quirks.

fun, not scary, new age mystery

This book was a good mystery with a new age twist. These two ladies are very different, but very likeable, both strong in their own way and funny, too.

Jane and Phoebe are two great new cozy protagonists

Jane Thistle, a widow, has recently moved to Tullulah, Alabama. Her husband was a career military officer and his job took them all over the world. He recently died, and she wanted to settle down in a small Southern town. Phoebe Twigg, also a widow, has lived in Tullulah all her life. She and Jane become fast best friends. Phoebe is not as refined as Jane, but she has a welcoming nature and is very warm and personable. Jane's neighbor is an old recluse, but he and Jane soon forge a friendship. When a body is found on his land by Jane and Phoebe and he is nowhere to be found, the police put him at the top of their suspect list. Jane knows he is more interested in the land than anything else and can't believe he would have killed someone. A firebomb explodes in Phoebe's kitchen, and unexplainable sounds are heard in Jane's House. Can these two charming and funny women uncover the killer while keeping each other safe? Jane and Phoebe are such opposites, but they get along so well and complement each other so much that this cozy mystery is a big hit! I can't wait to read more of their adventures. The Southern small town setting is fabulous. The author has plenty of twists and surprises to keep the reader guessing. I highly recommend this book.

Great start ends in idiocy

This book was off to a promising start: A 60-something military widow retires to a small Southern town she'd passed through once and fell in love with. She meets another 60-something widow who's a local character and an 80-something crotchety widower and begins new friendships. Somewhere along the way she shares with us that she can see ghosts, a talent not unheard of even in some of the better mystery series, Carolyn Haines' Mississippi Delta series for one. Enter greedy locals and a couple of murders and we're off for what seemed to be a pretty good story. Then the book went to heck, more specifically, it went to the Land of Oh-Come-On-Now-Who's-Gonna-Buy-That. Our demure widow reveals to us at various times throughout the otherwise good plot that she is a weapons expert, a crack shot, a martial artist especially adept in hand-to-hand combat, a skilled investigator, and, oh yeah, a former CIA operative. She sets about to prove it all by solving the murders and single-handedly defeating all the armed and dangerous bad guys, including one who was a rogue marine, and another one who was really a federal undercover agent. The fight scenes she describes would be hard to buy for a large, fit, well-trained, and very lucky young man. To attribute them to a tiny woman pushing 70 is just idiotic. Winning the battle royale with the help of a Native American ghost would have been a fairly decent wrap-up if our intelligence had not been so deeply and frequently insulted before that point. Note to author: Fiction and delusion are not the same thing.

amusing whodunit

As a career military spouse, Jane Thistle has moved many times over the years. However when her husband Army Colonel John Bradford Thistle died, the widow, used to doing the packing and overseeing the move, effortlessly settles in Tullulah, Alabama though she grieves her loss. She selected Tullulah twenty years ago when she was driving by herself from Florida to his new post in the Midwest and during the drive she left the Interstate and found the town. In Tullulah, Jane meets widow Phoebe Twigg, who has been a towner all her life. In spite of the international and military outlook of Jane vs. the local sheltered perspective of Phoebe, the two become close friends. The pals find a murdered corpse in a firing range in the woods while someone harasses Jane's neighbor Cal Prewitt, who is arrested for the homicide. An unknown enemy firebombs Phoebe's kitchen and strange events are occurring in Jane¿s new home. Used to taking charge and having done some quiet work for her late husband, Jane persuades Phoebe that they must depend on no one but themselves as they investigate who is behind the crime serge in Tullulah. --- THISTLE AND TWIGG is an amusing whodunit with a sort of Home Alone feel to it as the widows battle the killers. The story line is fast-paced, quite humorous and insures the audience knows the two lead female friends up close so that when they try to outwit their adversaries, they (and the consequently the plot) seems genuine. Fans of amateur sleuth tales will want to read Mary Saums¿ delightful cat and mouse game reminiscent of Tom and Jerry. --- Harriet Klausner

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.