Customer Reviews

Did You Declare the Corpse? (Thoroughly Southern Mysteries, No. 8)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Georgia Magistrate MacLaren Yarbrough is visiting the Scottish Highlands for two weeks but her companion is not her beloved husband Joe Riddley but her friend Laura MacDonald. Joe thinks it is safe to take a fishing vacation with his son and two grandsons because Mac won't have any mysteries to solve or trip over dead bodies. Little does he knows that his worst fears will be realized when a heartless killer tries to murder Mac.

The mystery begins when Mac overhears a person on their tour arguing with the brother-in-law of the laird of Auchnager about a business deal. Before that incident that argumentative individual acted like he was another tourist on a holiday jaunt. While visiting a local church one of the tourists is found lying in a coffin inside the holy facility, the victim of murder.. Mac immediately assumes the laird's brother-in-law did the deed until that poor soul winds up in a second coffin. Without meaning to, Mac observes her fellow tourists and asks questions to try to bring the culprits to justice though she ends up feeling sorry for them even though they killed somebody.

Patricia Sprinkle's latest Thoroughly Southern mystery, although placed in the Scottish Highlands, is still a down home, at times hilarious cozy. This is a mystery Agatha Christie would be proud to claim as her own. The intricate plotting and the eccentric cast of characters are just two of the reasons that DID YOU DELIVER THE CORPSE? is a one sitting reading experience. The heroine is eminently likeable and her homespun wisdom instantly endears her to the audience who will want this grandmotherly person to adopt them.

Harriet Klausner

This is not the author's best work. It plods on and on, this way and that way. The characters seem to overlap and get confused. Two couples especially get confused with each other at times. Then, as it races to conclude, some characters change identity.

I hate to disagree with Amazon's #1 reviewer and her five stars, but I must. The mystery simply fell short of the mark for me. After a promising opening that reveals an unnamed person has been found unexpectedly in a coffin at a Scottish church, the story returns to the characters gathering for their trip to Scotland. The plot then unfolds as the group makes its way on tour, until they return to the time and place where the deed was done.

The murder occurs past the half-way point, with time spent in various Scottish locales developing the characters and sprinkling clues for the eventual events and motives. Unfortunately, the tourists are largely annoying or uninteresting, with some exceptions. Whiners and jerks don't do much for me, and I recall little humor along the way. You may not be disappointed no matter who was killed, because of course it won't be our heroine.

The pace picks up after the murder, as our narrator MacLaren takes advantage of being one of the first people to know of the murder, and overhearing some timely arguments earlier, to begin her casual snooping. Someone actually calls her out as a Jessica Fletcher type and clumsily warns her not to get involved. Hmm, why not?

The truth of the first murder is mostly revealed not through any real insightful detective work, but through a witness who speaks up and cannot be denied. The resolution of both murders occurs quickly, and the justification is a bit blah. An unexpected criminal subplot pops up late and then just disappears near the end. Several people will turn out not to be what or whom they seem to be, and the reader will sense that as the key lurking element of surprise as the tour moves on and reaches the fateful town, where additional relationships develop.

You can decide whether the colloquial Scottish ("Fit ye deein'?", et al) is effective or insulting. Oh, and don't forget the Canadian's occasional "eh?". I kind of expected some y'alls in return, given that these were Georgians on tour, after all.

This was my first mystery by Patricia Sprinkle, so I cannot place it relative to her other works.

I really enjoy this series and also Patricia Sprinkle's genealogical series, so much so that I have found them all in large=print for my older sister in Florida. Read my full review of her book "Guess Who's Coming to Die" for more information. That review applies to all the books in this down-home Georgia series.

I love this series, but this was my least favorite so far. It was tedious and I don't think she wrote the accents very well. Very annoying. I haven't been to Scotland but I doubt they say "wee" (I think I'll take a wee nap) as much as she wrote. I have been to Canada and I know that she used the "eh" at the end of sentences TOO, TOO much. Story a bit convoluted and the characters miss-able. Her characters aren't usually this silly and superficial. She left some threads that could be picked up in future books. I hope the characters will mature a bit, and MacLauren should stay in America if this story is any indication. I hate to not finish a book, and I was so glad when this one was over. If you are new to this series, go back and get some of the earlier ones; don't start here.

This is a mystery that starts at one time, then jumps back to the past. It's a technique that can work--but only if you give the reader a reason to care, to wonder how and why the character(s) got into the predicament you first see them in.

In this case, it begins with a mystery about coffins delivered to the wrong chapel that nobody apparently ordered, and a body found in one of them, but we don't know who.

Then it jumps back in time to tell us all the details of a tour to Scotland, complete with accents: a Canadian woman who ends every statement with "eh?" and the Scottish characters all find reason to say "fit ye deein'" at least once in every conversation.

The tour is dull, the characters unlikeable, crimes that are eventually uncovered are just ignored at the end, and the mystery that starts the book, the coffins being delivered to the wrong chapel, is solved, but makes no sense.

Patricia Sprinkle makes a southerner feel at home. From the nicknames for loved ones to the use of southern idioms, Sprinkle lets you know that she is at home in the south. Her characters are the characters of small town America, alive and practically walking off the page to sit with you and enjoy a southern mystery. Being (well) over the age of fifty, I appreciate an older woman who is not seen as senile, incapable or over the hill. MacLaren Yarbrough is a delight. Her marriage that has lasted for years, her children who are not perfect, her grandchildren she loves, a town full of people that know each other and can live with that knowledge, all make this series fun to read. Hopefully, MacLaren will continue to solve mysteries for many more years.

Patricia Sprinkle give us all the clues, and if you pay attention, there are no surprises. Her characters are multi-dimensional--having flaws and a conscience. Mac and Joe Riddley are like people I have met while in the south. Some of the one-time characters are a bit dramatic, but this is their chance to shine. The underlying theme of home and family, coupled with respect and love, give the characters more depth and dimension than Christie gave hers. I enjoy all her novels. Sometimes I'm with her all the way (like in this one), and sometimes I am surprised.

The book is one in a series of fantastic stories by Patricia Sprinkle.
I highly recommend this series and all other books by this wonderful author.