When Did We Lose Harriet? (Thoroughly Southern Mysteries, No. 1) [Paperback]

Patricia Sprinkle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 3, 1997

A teenage girl has been missing from her Montgomery, Alabama, home for six weeks. She may be a runaway, a crime victim, or both. What's amazing is other people's lack of concern. Just one person cares that she's gone: a spunky amateur sleuth on the sunset end of sixty. Armed with razor-sharp insight, a salty wit, and tenacious faith, MacLaren Yarbrough follows a trail of clues -- a wisp of a hint, a shadow of a lie -- in search of answers to questions that come hot and fast and that grow increasingly alarming. How did a fifteen-year-old girl come across a large sum of money? Why did she hide it instead of taking it with her? Where is she now? And who is willing to kill to keep MacLaren from probing too far? Masked by Dixie charm and the scent of honeysuckle, a deadly secret lies coiled . . . one that holds the ultimate answer to the question, When Did We Lose Harriet? When Did We Lose Harriet? is the first of the MacLaren Yarbrough Mysteries, featuring plucky, sixty-some heroine MacLaren Yarbrough. Look for further books in this series in the near future.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Sprinkle, whose previous mysteries were in the mainstream press (Deadly Secrets on the St. Johns, Bantam, 1995), introduces a new Christian character in this first book in a proposed series. Sixtyish southern lady MacLaren Yarbrough is visiting her ill brother in Montgomery, Alabama, when she becomes involved in the mysterious disappearance of teenager Harriet Lawson. When the girl's relatives don't seem to care what happened to Harriet, MacLaren feels it is her Chrisitan duty to investigate (though that duty often takes a backseat to sheer nosiness). MacLaren is a feisty and fun character who should develop well. However, sudden switches in narrative viewpoints from MacLaren to a younger library worker named Josheba Davidson are disconcerting and flaw an otherwise promising debut for the character.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Author

Patricia Sprinkle is a best-selling mystery writer and an active member of Sisters-in-Crime and Mystery Writers of America. She is also the author of such non-fiction books as Women Who Do Too Much, Children Who Do Too Little, and Women Home Alone. A frequent speaker at seminars and women’s conferences, she lives in Miami with her husband

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Zondervan (November 3, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0310212944
• ISBN-13: 978-0310212942
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #710,742 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New series and a spunky, curious, caring woman you'll love!, March 22, 1998

By 

Lois Ward ([e-mail]) (Prospect, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: When Did We Lose Harriet? (Thoroughly Southern Mysteries, No. 1) (Paperback)

Patricia Sprinkle's Sheila Travis mysteries have given me pleasurable reading ... and rereading. I always hope for one more, expecting to spend a few hours with people I like, learning some lore of southern states I have yet to visit, chuckling at a deft touch of humor, and seeing a good mystery unfold. As a veteran of the challenges of book selection for congregational libraries, I was delighted to hear that Patricia Sprinkle had created a new mystery series heroine whose first adventure would be published by Zondervan. I've read WHEN DID WE LOSE HARRIET twice in the last few weeks, and it's all there again. MacLaren Yarbrough, at sixty-plus, in Montgomery to help bully her younger brother into the crucial heart surgery he needs, takes his shift at the teen center, and rapidly becomes involved in determining the fate of 15-year-old Harriet, missing now for six weeks. Strangely, no one else seems to care. Whether it is deep concern or innate nosiness, MacLaren precipitates events that need all her insight, pluckiness, salty wit, and tenacious faith to understand. I found the people, the humor, the sense of place, and a good mystery, as I expected. Plus, Patricia Sprinkle is superb at showing that MacLaren's faith is realistic, down-to-earth, integrally part of her character, as much as her big-sister attitude to brother Jake or her inability to let a riddle go unsolved, all revealed without fanfare throughout the story. HARRIET is a very good read for any mystery fan, and a gem for a church fiction collection. I look forward to the next title (this year hopefully).

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Feisty new sleuth seeks a child who is missing, not missed., February 5, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Miami, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: When Did We Lose Harriet? (Thoroughly Southern Mysteries, No. 1) (Paperback)

This is my first book in a new series featuring amateur sleuth MacLaren Yarbrough, a feisty woman on the sunny side of sixty. She and her husband Joe Riddley Yarbrough, a Georgia magistrate, are small town Georgians--a departure from my last series featuring cosmopolitan Sheila Travis and her redoubtable Aunt Mary Beaufort. In this first MacLaren book, when MacLaren finds an envelope full of money in an inner city teen center, she plans to return it to the owner and concentrate on her brother Jake, who's just had a heart attack. Mac discovers she not only cannot find Harriet, the money's owner, she can't find anybody who remembers the last time they SAW Harriet. Can a teen disappear without a trace? Was it by her choice--or someone else's? Set in Montgomery, Alabama, this story ranges from the inner city to the exclusive suburbs as MacLaren tries to find out when we lost Harriet, and how. The book is light, funny, sometimes cozy and sometimes scary as it explores what makes families do what they do to one another. In the sequel, BUT WHY SHOOT THE MAGISTRATE?--to be released by Zondervan in Sept. '97--MacLaren faces every amateur sleuth's nightmare when the person she loves best suffers the consequences of her own sleuthing. I'm giving WHEN DID WE LOSE HARRIET? an 8 rating because southern mothers teach their daughters not to brag, but I hope you'll really like the book and this new sleuth.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Patricia Sprinkle is a very convincing writer, August 6, 2005

By 

F. Wells (Baton Rouge, LA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: When Did We Lose Harriet? (Thoroughly Southern Mysteries, No. 1) (Paperback)

I bought this book a couple of years ago. I didn't know who Patricia Sprinkle was at the time. I loved the book, and I loved the way each character is brought to life by Ms. Sprinkle. They all seem so real, like someone you've met, or known before. I also like the way that she put a list of each character's name, and the role that they each play in the story in the front of the novel. That was very convenient. I didn't have to wonder who was who, and who did what. It would be great if all writers would do that in their books.