Hush My Mouth: A Southern Fried Mystery (Southern Fried Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Cathy Pickens (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 19, 2008 | Series: Southern Fried Mysteries

A spring day brings attorney Avery Andrews a new case. Fran French comes from Atlanta looking for her friend Neanna, who’s more like a sister to her. Neanna went to Dacus looking for information on the unsolved murder of her aunt Wenda, and now she’s missing.

Twenty years earlier, Wenda’s body was found posed on a memorial bench in the cemetery, her packed luggage at her feet, as if ready for a journey. When Neanna is found in her car, dead from a shot to the head, the police want to call it suicide. Fran insists it’s impossible that Neanna killed herself and urges Avery to help her prove it.

While Avery is sifting through Neanna’s and Wenda’s confused past and present, her office mate Melvin Bertram is befriended by a trio of ghost hunters who arrive in search of ectoplasm from the long-dead. The trio, christened “the ghosters” by Avery, hope to talk Melvin into investing in their TV pilot, oblivious to the fact that someone is baiting them with increasingly ridiculous ghost sightings. In no time at all, the ghosters are having altercations with the resident biker gang and with Avery’s private investigator. Let no one say life in Camden County is uninteresting.

In this latest in Cathy Pickens’s Southern Fried Mystery series, Avery explores the nature of family—the ones we’re born into and the ones we find—and learns about the haunting power of the past in the process. Hush My Mouth offers an original blend of humor and mystery, peppered with quirky characters and boasting a decidedly Southern flavor.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Add to the growing shelf of Southern sleuths the proud name of Avery Andrews.”—Wilmington Star-News

“No slim Pickens with this author…Hush My Mouth is fabulous.”—The Best Reviews

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

From the Back Cover

Just because Avery Andrews is a big-city lawyer doesn’t mean she’s above the law in her small hometown of Dacus, South Carolina.

Now that attorney Avery Andrews is back in town, business is booming. There’s the team of ghost hunters who arrive at Avery’s office one fine spring day, searching for ectoplasm from the long-dead. The ghosters are also having altercations with the locals (a raging biker gang and Avery’s own P.I. among them) but Avery’s got other “real” problems with the dearly departed: The twenty-year-old unsolved murder of Wenda Sims. Not long ago Wenda’s niece, Neanna, came to Dacus looking for clues about what happened to her aunt. Then Neanna, too, went missing…and was found dead. Now Neanna’s best friend and adopted sister, Fran French, has come to town. Can Avery help Fran solve the two murders and prevent Fran from meeting the same fate? It’s time for Avery to unearth the truth about the past before it comes back to haunt Dacus…for good.

  “Add to the growing shelf of Southern sleuths the proud name of Avery Andrews.”—Wilmington Star-News

“No slim Pickens with this author…Hush My Mouth is fabulous.”—The Best Reviews

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (February 19, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312354428
• ISBN-13: 978-0312354428
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,883,471 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

The first Avery Andrews novel, Southern Fried, won the 2003 St. Martin's Press/Malice Domestic Award for Best New Traditional Mystery. Romantic Times BookClub magazine reviewers named it one of the five "Best First Mysteries" for 2004 and Publishers Weekly called is "a cozy with sharp edges."

The five books in the series are set in small-town South Carolina, where Cathy grew up and where her family has lived for 300 years. Cathy has also written a mystery walking tour of Charleston, South Carolina: Charleston Mysteries (History Press 2007).

At various times and under various aliases, she's been an attorney; a university provost; a writer of law books and articles on poisons and private detectives; a church organist and choir director; and a ballroom and clog dance coach. In her other life, Cathy is a lawyer and business professor at Queens University of Charlotte. She teaches a popular MBA elective on the creative process.

Cathy's key words include: South Carolina; murder mysteries; Clemson University; University of South Carolina School of Law; Sisters in Crime; Mystery Writers of America; Queens University of Charlotte; McColl School of Business; creativity; innovation; the creative process; Charlotte, NC.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quirky Cast of Characters, October 13, 2008

By 

L.C. Evans - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Hush My Mouth: A Southern Fried Mystery (Southern Fried Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Cathy Pickens has done a super job creating a quirky cast of characters who add charm and spice to this southern murder mystery. Small town attorney Avery Andrews gets hired to track down a missing woman. The woman is found dead and Avery finds herself working on solving the mystery, as well as solving a cold case involving the murdered woman's aunt. Meanwhile she has to contend with a trio of wacky ghost hunters, a PI with a lot of attitude, and a new receptionist who's as sassy as she is talented. Subplots involving other clients and Avery's family are nicely done and contribute to the likability of the main character.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A nice cozy mystery, April 13, 2008

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hush My Mouth: A Southern Fried Mystery (Southern Fried Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Avery Andrews was a big lawyer in Columbia. She has recently returned to her hometown of Dacus. She is settling in as the small town lawyer taking care of wills and driving under the influence charges. She gets a big case when Fran French from Atlanta shows up with a missing person's case.

Fran tells Avery that Neanna was like a sister to her and is now missing. The last Franknew Neanna was headed to Dacus to go to a concert at one of the clubs. Fran last heard from Neanna on Friday and it is now Monday.

Neanna has no family left. She was raised by her grandmother who has recently passed away. Her mom died years ago and her aunt Wenda was murdered in Dacus almost two decades ago. Wenda's killer was never found and Fran believes that Neanna may be searching for answers to her aunt's death.

Three kids in town are looking for paranormal sightings and going ons. Some of the locals refer to the kids as ghost hunters. They are advertising in the local newspaper and asking locals for locations to go to find paranormal readings. The ghost hunters are thinking about making a movie and have asked Melvin Bertram to invest in it.

Avery shares an office building with Melvin Bertram. Avery is on the case looking for Neanna, who turns up dead. Now she must follow Neanna's steps to see what happened and look for possible links to Wenda's death at the same time. While working this case she also finds time to make sure the ghost hunters stay out of trouble.

All of this going on and Avery still finds time for square dancing and ghost stories.

I really liked the characters in the book. I like how Avery has a job to do but she never forgets her family. There is always time to work but we all need to take time for outings once in a while just as Avery does. I really like how the ghost hunters are thrown into the book to add twists and turns along the way.

Armchair Interviews says: This is Cathy's fifth book.

4.0 out of 5 stars 'In small towns, nuttiness can just hang out in plain view' - Cathy Pickens, Hush My Mouth, September 13, 2010

By 

L. Burns "Bigdog Mom" (New England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hush My Mouth: A Southern Fried Mystery (Southern Fried Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

This fourth entry in the series finds attorney Avery Andrews adjusting to life as a small-town lawyer - basically a Jack-of-all-trades with a law degree. A young woman who visited Dacus has gone missing, and her sister enlists Avery's help in finding out what happened. The seemingly cut and dry missing person case is complicated by its connection to a decades old unsolved murder. Has someone in Dacus literally gotten away with murder all these years?

I felt like everything came together in this book. The mystery was plausible and kept me guessing - it wasn't just window dressing for the domestic details. A side story about a trio of "ghost hunters" provided comic relief and there was just enough small-town quirkiness to give Dacus an authentic regional flavor. The author does a nice job with dialog - conversations have a natural, unscripted feel to them.

I would strongly recommend this to readers who like "cozy" mysteries with a small-town southern setting. While this book works fine as a standalone, I'd suggest starting with the first book in the series - Southern Fried

No swearing or sexual content.