Feet of Clay (Sunny Childs Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Ruth Birmingham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2, 2006 | Series: Sunny Childs Mysteries

Her personal life may be a mess. And no one said her family was sane. But as lead detective at Atlanta's Peachtree Investigations, hard-nosed, fast-talking PI Sunny Childs is always up for cracking a case.
And now starring in her sixth mystery, Sunny is in thick. When her cousin Lee-Lee, a documentary filmmaker who's interviewing convicted murderer and rapist Dale Weedlow, invites Sunny along for the ride, Sunny knows her very presence will probably convince her flighty cousin that the sicko's been framed. But Sunny ends up going, and to her surprise, things are, indeed, not as they seem.
Evidence of a cover-up looms behind the gentility of the local politics, business, and law enforcement, and as usual, Sunny finds herself deep into the original murder case. But with the locals closing their doors in her face and the time before the convict's execution running short, Sunny has to hurry if she's going to get to the bottom of the six-year-old murders of two girls whose feet had sunk deep into the Southern clay.

Praise for Ruth Birmingham and Ace Atlanta PI Sunny Childs
"Witty, irreverent."--Harlan Coben, author of Fade Away
"Top-notch . . . The further adventures of Sunny Childs will be most welcome."--Booklist
"A terrific series."--Midwest Book Review
"Birmingham has established herself as the Queen of Atlanta crime fiction. Read and enjoy."--Fred Willard, author of Down on Ponce
"Gets better with each installment."--Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
"Sunny Childs is a wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am great read."--J. A. Jance, author of Name Withheld

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the winning sixth Sunny Childs mystery (the first to be published in hardcover) from the pseudonymous Birmingham (aka Walter Sorrells), the Atlanta PI helps her younger, flightier sister, Lee-Lee, make a documentary about a prisoner on death row. Convicted of the brutal sex murders of two local women, Dale Weedlaw is scheduled to be executed in a few days. No sooner does Lee-Lee, in search of an interview, arrive in the small Georgia town where the killings took place, however, than she's arrested on false charges and thrown into jail. After Sunny gets her released, they set about encountering and questioning the occasionally cagey and often unfriendly locals. It soon becomes clear—even before they meet Weedlaw—that there are likelier suspects for the murders still at large. Solid dialogue, a strong yet nuanced sense of place, entertaining characters and regional humor make this a fun, fast read. The second in the series, Fulton County Blues (1999), won an Edgar for best original paperback. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Birmingham's latest Sunny Childs^B adventure finds the sarcastic southern sleuth in rare form. Her artsy (and ditsy) cousin Lee-Lee has decided to do a documentary on the impending execution of Dale Weedlow, convicted of the brutal murders of two girls. Lee-Lee tries to talk her PI cousin into going with her to interview Weedlow, but Sunny is having none of it--that is, until Lee-Lee is arrested. Heading to Flournoy County to bail out her cousin, Sunny soon learns that the townsfolk of tiny Pettigrew, Georgia, don't take kindly to a couple of "big city" Atlanta chicks invading their turf. When the two girls start investigating and find huge holes in Weedlow's conviction, many of the townspeople get nervous. Birmingham moves the plot along nicely, but the real fun is in watching Sunny kick all the bad guys' butts in grand Clint Eastwood fashion. A fun and feisty adventure, as refreshing as a glass of sweet tea on a muggy Georgia afternoon. Jenny McLarin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (May 2, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312284241
• ISBN-13: 978-0312284244
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,881,707 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fabulous regional mystery, May 3, 2006

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Feet of Clay (Sunny Childs Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Atlanta's Peachtree Investigations top private investigator Sunny Childs refuses to help her enthusiastic cousin Lee-Lee film a documentary on death row convict Germind Dale Weedlaw, who is to be executed in Jackson in a few days. Dale was found guilty of brutally raping and killing two women in Flournoy County.

Not long afterward, at two in the morning, Sunny, sleeping with her fianc? FBI Special Agent Barrington Cherry, receives a collect call from a prison in Flournoy County from Lee-Lee, who has been arrested. Three hours after the call, Sunny and her brother attorney Walter arrive in the office of the county's sheriff in Pettigrew, Georgia. Lee-Lee insists she was falsely arrested because of her questions about the Weedlaw case. Sunny and Walter get her freed, but the sleuth stays around to keep the filmmaker out of trouble. They soon find stronger suspects than the convicted as they interview hostile locals.

In her sixth appearance, Sunny is at her best as she deals with her zealous cousin and townsfolk who would prefer to lynch the outsiders than answer their inquiries. The story line focuses on a serious topic of capital crime while also uses family relationships and some local eccentric characters to provide humor. Ruth Birmingham shows why this is an award winning series with a fabulous regional mystery.

Harriet Klausner

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Read, September 6, 2008

By 

A Reader - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Feet of Clay (Sunny Childs Mysteries) (Hardcover)

After waiting in vain for this book to come out in paperback, I finally picked up the hardcover. Unfortunately, so much time had gone by since I'd read the last installment of the series that I had trouble remembering much about Sunny or her world. And, while I enjoyed this book, I do remember liking the previous installments better.

I'm not sure if there are more books forthcoming, but the author would be well-served to concentrate on Sunny and not her psycho cousin Lee-Lee, who was nothing but a distraction to this story and probably caused me to like it less than I would have had Sunny handled this case on her own.