Customer Reviews

Somebody'S Dead In Snellville

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Cow pastures are worth $10 million dollars. At least they are in Gwinnett County, Georgia. Neighboring Atlanta is outgrowing her boundaries and developers are offering top dollar for the farm lands and forests of what was once considered podunk backwater. At 97 years old, Grandma Sims, the humble-living grand matriarch of the Sims clan finds herself sitting on the most valuable piece of real estate in the county. But Grandma Sims doesn't want to sell.

A kitchen fire forces amateur detective, Sheila Travis, to impose on the Sims family hospitality. When the big news is announced during a family gathering another conflagration is ignited. Hopes alight and differences of opinion blaze. Some envision a windfall that will bail them out of private financial troubles. Others have big plans for the farm itself, if only Grandma Sims would let them work the land.

By everyone's reckoning, whether dreams of wealth, or ambitions of rebuilding the family farm to its former glory and more, only one person stands in your way;Grandma Sims. Yet, one by one, members of the Sims family are murdered, and not a hair is harmed on the old lady's head. Follow the money they always say, but is the glitter of all that gold blinding us to the killer's true motive? Go along with Travis as she reluctantly investigates, tearing her way through a briarpatch of complex family alliances and animosities in this enjoyable, perfect for bedtime reading, murder mystery.

Sheila Travis is an amateur detective who has to rank as one of the most reluctant sleuths in fictional history. Already well-known in Peachtree Corners near Atlanta because of her exploits in a previous case, Sheila gets involved in another caper in Snellville. Sheila is not a strong protagonist. She is just one of the crowd spending a lot of time talking with suspects and witnesses. Sheila is Miss Marple without the same energy and sparkle. The plot is difficult to follow. The dialogue is often boring and trivial but the ending proves to be a mild surprise.