Customer Reviews

Murder Makes Waves (Beeler Large Print Mystery Series)

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It is a shame that Anne George passed away a few years ago. I just discovered her Southern Sisters series and eight books are too few for this magical series. It is ESPECIALLY a great series for those who are 30+, but EVERYONE will enjoy them....especially women who have sisters!

"Murder Makes Waves" is the 4th book in the series and I found the plot and dialogue to be especially good. I rarely laugh out loud in reading passages, but Anne George is an exception!

Retired schoolteacher, Patricia Anne (petite, short, reserved) sibling Mary Alice (boisterous, impulsive, rich, 250+, and a foot taller than her sister), and Patricia Anne's daughter, Haley and good friend Frances escape to the beaches of Destin, Florida to get away from it all.

One of the first people they see is their old friend who manages the condominiums - Millicent Weatherby. But Millicent has shed 50lbs., has had a few cosmetic surgeries and looks simply fantastic...until she turns up dead!

The sisters are threatened and must work hard to quickly solve this murder.

This is a series that you will LOVE. Buy them all at once - you won't regret it!

Murder Makes Waves, a book by Anne George, can be evaluated many ways. As a cozy mystery it is quite good. As a book of humor, it is superior. As a realistic portrayal of life in the South, it is surprisingly accurate. It is a rare description of relationships, especially those of a family. The fine language used in the book puts the reader into the setting, into the atmosphere, in an almost unbelievable way. The reader smells, sees, tastes, feels, experiences what George describes. Her pleasing use of figurative language indicates a discerning eye, ear, etc. And on top of all this--it is a great read! Give it a 10! Try it! You'll like it!

This is my favorite of the Anne George mysteries. Destin is one of my favorite beach spots, where all the southerners go to relax and read a good book. Enjoyed spending Patricia Anne's vacation with her and her crazy family there, even if they did find a few dead bodies! What's a few bodies among friends?

For those who like southern mysteries, try The Desk by Jonna Turner.

Patricia Anne (Mouse) and Mary Alice (Sister) are a pair of sisters from Birmingham Alabama who have very little in common aside from their bloodlines and a penchant for getting themselves all tangled up in murder investigations. In this, the fourth entry in this series the two sisters decide to spend a week at the beach where Sister (the rich one) has a condo. Mary Alice is going for a writer's conference and Mouse is tagging along because her husband Fred is going to be out of town on business. It just happens that Patricia Anne's widowed daughter Haley has a week off so she ends up going along, as does another lady who just retired from the same school that Mouse retired from. They plan on a nice girl's week out but then the dead bodies start to pile up and everything changes.

Naturally it is the girls who stumble onto the first body and the deceased turns out to be Sister's condo neighbor. In the entries before this one the sisters have tended to get involved in the investigations because a friend of theirs is a chief suspect and that pattern is repeated here. Actually Mouse does most of the investigating because Sister is so caught up in her writing conference that she has little time for snooping. She does use what little time she has to spare well though. Between them, with a little help from Haley, Mouse figures out who did it, which is something of a departure from the norm because the sisters tend to just stumble onto the solution most of the time. The mystery itself also plays a stronger part in this entry than it has in some of the others but despite the author's obvious effort to stay on plot, the fun factor is still very much in play.

The dialogue and interaction between the characters in these books is just indescribably good and the humor abounds. My wife read this book before I did and since she usually retires before I do she kept getting out of bed to come and read passages to me. All the while she was laughing so hard that she had to keep wiping away the tears. For example, there is the story that Sister writes for the conference. It is the tale of a wheelchair repossession man and it includes a scene with a little old lady in her chair chasing the guy down the street and beating him with her walking stick. If you don't think that is funny just keep in mind that Mary Alice wrote it as drama not comedy. I assure you that these two sisters will brighten up the gloomiest of days but I must admit that after reading this book I'm kind of glad that I'm an only child.

This is the 3rd Southern Sisters Mystery I've read. They're easy, fast and funny murder mysteries, with lots of cute family stories intertwined in the intrigue.

If you have ever spent a week in a southern coastal condo you should recognize half the characters in this book. The other half you will probably wish you recognized. Retired school teacher, Patricia Ann, and her sister, Sister plan a week at Sister's beachside condo in Destin Florida along with one of Patricia Ann's friends and her daughter. There is also a writer's conference that Sister is attending.

The first surprise they encounter is that the manager of the condo has gone from a comfortable greying 160 pounds to a blonde streaked 110. The next surprise is that they find her body washed up on the beach, obviously not a victim of drowning.

As the other women residents at the condo go into full southern comforting of the widower mode, Patricia Ann and Sister do a bit of sleuthing, including at look at the real estate development that the murdered woman was involved with. Her death, it seemed, had left her husband a very wealthy man and the other investers much better off, while relieving them of her demands for environmental conservation.

There are some poignant moment in this book as well as some laugh out loud pages-- Sister's short story has to be read about to be believed. While I can't say that I did not spot the villain right off I did enjoy the outing.

If you are a fan of this subgenre then this book it highly recommended.

Amazon.com reviews got me curious about Anne George. I bought the first book, "Murder on a Girls' Night Out" and have been hooked ever since, reading them in order and with great happiness.

"Murder Makes Waves" is #4, and in this one Patricia Anne ("Mouse") is sort of in the mood for an adventure. What she gets is an invitation to a short holiday in Florida with her sister Mary Alice, who has a condo in Destin. A week or so at the beach sounds good, but Mouse should know by now that even a simple holiday with Mary Alice can turn into a bigger adventure than she'd every bargained for!

The ladies discover the body of a close friend washed up on the beach, her throat cut. Soon after they stumble across an apparent suicide that quickly begins to look like another murder. Both victims were environmentalists, also part owners of a land development company called Blue Bay Ranch that is owned by a guy who doesn't much seem to care what his building does to the environment, or wildlife population. . .

Is he the killer? What about the widower of the first victim, who is the beneficiary of a million-dollar insurance policy? While Mary Alice attends a writer's conference by day, Patricia Anne has too much time on her hands to snoop - and get closer to a killer . . .

Yet ANOTHER funny and heartwarming mystery by Anne George. I have never read books like hers, or met characters I so much felt were a part of my own family. It was just before starting this book that I read of her passing, and it made me so sad to know that the 8 "Southern Sisters" mysteries would be all there would ever be. I am reading them more slowly now, with other novels in between each one, savoring each one as I would a fine wine when reading it.

The mystery in this one ends a bit weakly, but the plot overall is good. What you really read an Anne George book for, though, is to get caught up in her world for awhile; her characters live and breathe off the page. An amazing writer.

Another terrific Southern Sisters Mystery! Join Patricia Anne and 'Aunt Sister' at the beach.

Throw in a couple of dead bodies, a whole whack of turtles and a Florida vacation and you have another hilarious, enjoyable read from Anne George.

I was first attracted to Anne's stories by the title of her books, but now I keep coming back for the laughs, the who-done-its and the fact that these two sisters feel like part of MY family now.

Thanks Anne!

This is the first of many Anne George books I hope to read! It was a humorous and clever mystery about the two southern sisters who are more different than alike. They take you on a fun, exciting, and dangerous vacation that will keep you guessing until the end! This is a wonderful book!

This is the fourth book that follows the Southern sisters, Patricia Anne and Mary Alice. I really enjoyed this one. I thought the second one (Murder on a Bad Hair Day) was funnier than the first. The third one (Murder Runs in the Family) was a bit predicable. Murder Makes Waves is my favorite thus far. Anne George has really hit her stride. I didn't think it was overly predictable. I thought it was the cozy, entertaining read I was looking for and I found it quite humorous as well. I liked that Patricia Anne's daughter, Haley and her former coworker, Frances played a larger role in this books. I also enjoyed that the setting was different. It was a nice change of pace, though I am not disappointed to return to Birmingham in the next one.

Murder Makes Waves takes place in Destin, FL where Patricia Anne, Mary Alice, Haley and Frances are headed for a girls only vacation. In Destin they sand, fun, food and dead bodies. And of course laughter and hilarity ensues as the sisters try to stay out of it but get swept up as usual. As usual, if you want a cozy mystery then you will enjoy this book.