Murder Carries a Torch

by Anne George Narrated by Ruth Ann Phimister

Overview

Though unalike as snowflakes, sisters Patricia Anne and Mary Alice share a sympathetic heart for their distraught cousin Luke-known affectionately in his boyhood as "Pukey Lukey," because of his penchant for getting sick in moving vehicles. Luke is desperate to hunt down Virginia, his wife of forty years, who has run off with a housepainter/snake-handling preacher named "Monk." And the sisters have graciously agreed to accompany their stricken kinsman on his search ... in Luke's car, of course.

But, while practical "Mouse" and flamboyant "Sister" are unable to find their runaway cousin-in-law among the asp-loving faithful on Chandler Mountain, they do manage to stumble upon the corpse of a pretty young redhead who was prematurely sent to her eternal reward. And before you can say "anaconda," they are hot on the serpentine trail of a killer who'd like nothing better than to sink a pair of poisonous fangs into two meddling Southern sisters!

Editorial Reviews

bn.com

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.

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.

Toby Bromberg

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

The sisters go with Luke to the church of Virginia’s "beloved." When Luke doesn’t come out, the sisters go in to find him unconscious near a dead woman on a pew. There’s no sign of Virginia.

The woman’s death does allow Mary Alice to meet Sheriff Virgil Stuckey. (She thinks he looks like Cary Grant, everyone else says Willard Scott.) Then Virginia’s 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.
— Romantic Times

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.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170841097
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	07/20/2012
Series:	Southern Sisters Series , #7
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

"I'm telling you, Patricia Anne. Fred kissing the ground like he did was a little too much. Embarrassing."

"He slipped."

"Slipped, my foot. The man was on his hands and knees patting the concrete, saying, 'Thank God.' It's a wonder everybody didn't fall over him."

I glanced around at my sister, Mary Alice, who was standing at my utility room door watching me put clothes in the washing machine. She had on a gray pants suit with a cream-colored turtleneck sweater and had already informed me that she was on her way to a luncheon.

I was one of the ones who had nearly fallen over my husband Fred at the airport, but I still felt the need to defend him.

"He hates to fly."

"Well, I figured that out for myself about an hour out of Birmingham. Every time I spoke to him he growled. Did you hear those noises? Pure growls. And he didn't even chew the peanuts. He trashed them." Mary Alice chomped her teeth together. "Like that. Thank God I wasn't sitting next to him on the Concorde. You've earned your place in heaven living with that man for forty years." She paused. "Why are you spraying Windex around that shirt-sleeve cuff?"

"Because I haven't had a chance to go to the store. This works as good as Spray 'n Wash." I put the shirt into the machine, closed the lid, and turned on the warm cycle.

"How come you're not jet-lagged like I am?" I asked. "I feel like there's a weight on top of my head."

Mary Alice moved from the doorway and I followed her into the kitchen and collapsed onto a chair.

"I have more reserves than you do. More stored-up energy. You want some coffee?"

I nodded that I did.She got two mugs, poured the coffee, and pushed the sugar toward me.

"You see," she explained seriously, "it's simple. I'm slightly larger than you, and that little extra fat gives me more energy. If you would eat normally, you wouldn't be so tired."

Little extra fat. Slightly larger. Ha. The woman is sixfeet tall and weighs two hundred fifty pounds. Admits to that. No telling what she really weighs. Especially after hitting every good restaurant in Warsaw, Poland, where we had been for the last two weeks spending Christmas with my newly married daughter Haley. And, believe me, there are some good restaurants there.

"You probably lost weight in Warsaw," she continued.

"I may have. All that walking."

"And not eating."

I poured milk into my coffee and watched it swirl around. No way I was going to get into this argument. Mary Alice has never believed that it's genetics that made me a foot shorter than she is and a size six petite. She swears it's lack of nutrition.

"I had an E-mail from Haley this morning," I said. "She's missing us."

"Well, of course she is. Nobody speaks English in Warsaw. Nobody. And there's not even so much as a Wal-Mart. just all those museums, old as the hills, and you have to ride those rickety streetcars to get anywhere, for heaven's sake."

"I thought it was a beautiful city."

"Well, you see, that's the difference in you and me, Mouse. I like things to move a little faster."

"You mean like interstates?"

"And better TV. Their Wheel of Fortune was pitiful."

I sighed and let Mary Alice ramble on. Haley was very happy, and she and her new husband, Dr. Philip Nachman, considered it the opportunity of a lifetime to be spending the first few months of their married life in richly cultured Warsaw.

"I'll say this, though." Mary Alice took a sip of her coffee. "Nephew seems to be making Haley happy."

The "nephew" bit is going to take a little clarification. Mary Alice's second husband was also Philip Nachman. Haley's new husband is his nephew, named for his uncle. So Haley and Philip are Mary Alice's niece and nephew (Philip by marriage). The "nephew" is to keep from confusing him with the original Philip Nachman, dead and buried at Elmwood Cemetery beside Sister's other husbands long ago, but still alive (so she says) in her heart. Certainly in her bank account. Each of her three husbands left her richer than the preceding one.

She leaned forward. "Don't you think so?"

"What? That Haley's happy? Sure."

"It's the Nachman genes." She stirred her coffee. "I almost asked Haley, but I decided not to."

"Asked her what?"

"Well, my Philip, when we were making love, just before he'd," Sister paused. "Well, he had this unusual thing he'd do."

"What?"

"He'd stop for a second and say, 'Lord, the saints are marching in.'" She smiled.

I thought about this disclosure for a moment. "Somehow I don't think that's genetic, Sister."

"Probably not. He did go to Tulane. But every time I hear that song I get misty-eyed. I wanted to have a New Orleans band play it at his funeral, strutting down the path at Elmwood with their umbrellas, but I wasn't sure it was kosher."

"I wouldn't think so."

Mary Alice looked into her coffee cup thoughtfully. "He was a lovely man, Mouse. Very much in touch with his inner child. No big alpha male hang-up like Fred has."

"Alpha males don't kiss the ground when they get home..."

Murder Carries a Torch. Copyright © by Anne George. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

Videos