Gone on Sunday: A Cotton Lee Penn Historical Mystery Book 1) –by Tower Lowe

Fiction / mystery

295 pages / 598 KB

5 Stars

First off, I should warn you, I read fiction for one reason, and one reason only – to escape my current reality (whatever it is at the moment), and when I read mysteries I do not try to figure out who done it.

I wasn't able to start this book until last night – big mistrake! I read until my eyes burned, the tears flowed, and the words swam uncontrollably about the page. If I'd started it sooner, it would have been a one-sit read!

The idea we can have heroines who are not perfect, who have flaws, whose hair is not plastic, is marvelous. Cotton Lee is not perfect. She has a gimp leg thanks to polio when she was small. She limps. She lives in the South, in Virginia, in 1972 (when the story begins) and is therefore not seen as fully human, but is seen as the "poor thing." Uh-huh. You may be able to walk faster than she can, but she'll take you for a ride. Trust me.

If you liked Blood on the Tracks and Dead Stop by Barbara Nickless, I think you'll really enjoy Gone on Sunday.

Cotton Lee Penn is hired as a private investigator to look into the death of Little Mary whose brutal murder is eerily coincident of her grandmother's murder 40 years prior, in the house next door. Lowe drops clues galore, and I had no idea who done 'em, or why, until she wanted me to. I've lived in the South, and if Lowe hasn't, she surely did her research! (I finished the book and wanted nothing more than to fry up some hush puppies!)

The book goes back and forth between 1932 and 1972. It's easy to follow, as she tells us at the beginning of each chapter when we are. The characters are well written and believable, the stories fascinating, and all is brought to a most satisfactory ending. I truly hope the next Cotton Lee Penn books are coming soon, and will be as much fun as this one. Truly delightful. You done good, Tower Lowe. Thank you.