Somebody's Dead in Snellville [Hardcover]

Patricia Houck Sprinkle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1992

Just when she feels she has left detective work for good, publicist Sheila Travis is called upon to help Katy Sims Tait, whose upwardly mobile family is involved in infighting, greed, and murder. By the author of Murder on Peachtree Street.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Young widow Sheila Travis takes on rural murder in her fourth outing (after Murder on Peachtree Street ). Sheila is drawn into the tangled affairs of the extended Sims family by her neighbor, Sara Sims Tait, following a developer's offer of $10 million for the family farm, within commuting distance of Atlanta. The family matriarch, Grandma Sims, refuses to give up the farm or allow it to be used for any purpose but agriculture. When domineering and unpleasant Martha Sloan Tait, a granddaughter and Sara's mother, is found shot to death in her kitchen, the family looks for an outside killer, but Sheila suspects various money-hungry and unpleasant family members. After Grandma Sims's remaining son, retarded Billy, is found hanged, the Simses would just as soon blame him and quietly close the case. But Sheila, pushed by her formidable Aunt Mary Beaufort, hunts for a killer who is willing to pare down the family to increase an inheritance. Sprinkle has an acute ear for the regional voice and a good eye for depicting rural southern life, but her mystery loses momentum before its resolution.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Sometime sleuth Sheila Travis (Murder on Peachtree Street, 1991, etc.), widowed 18 months and working in Atlanta, is a neighbor of wimpy Sara Sims Tait, young member of a multigenerational, mostly redneck, singularly unappealing clan. A rumor that the family farm, owned by tough old Grandma Sims, may be sold for millions appears to trigger a series of tragedies, starting with the murder of Sara's social-climbing mother Martha- -shot to death in her kitchen. Later, dim-witted Uncle Billy is found hanged in the barn, seemingly a suicide. Another death and lesser dire events are to follow before Sheila and her nosy Aunt Mary figure it all out. At that point, however, the weary reader--numbed by drearily complex family relationships, arch asides, and a relentless tide of domestic trivia--will be past caring. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 246 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1st edition (August 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312078099
• ISBN-13: 978-0312078096
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,095,673 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Cow Pastures are Worth $10 Million Dollars, September 15, 2008

By 

Tricia Huff (Cincinnati, OH) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Somebody's Dead in Snellville (Hardcover)

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.

3.0 out of 5 stars A Miss Marple Without The Sparkle, November 16, 2000

By 

Rosemary Brunschwyler (Homewood, Alabama, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Somebody's Dead in Snellville (Hardcover)

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.