The Grass Widow
Bantam Books 1996
ISBN 0-553-56860-4
Christina says:
Together with her daughter Katie Pru historian Gale Grayson returned
from England to her grandmother Ella’s house in Georgia. Here she hopes
to find peace again. Her husband, a poet and terrorist, shot himself four
years ago while running from the police and she herself was at the center
of a murder investigation only the previous year. But her peace is
shattered once more. During his annual gospel barbecue – a local event
that draws people from near and far – her cousin Martin Cane retires to
his bedroom, and then a shot interrupts the merriment. Was it really an
accident while he was cleaning his gun? Was it suicide? Or was he killed
by one of the four women who – claiming to be confused and striving to
help poor Martin – wiped out all the evidence at the crime scene? The
Cane women don’t seem willing to assist the authorities, and Sheriff
Truitt asks Gale for help.
Journalist Teri Holbrook draws the picture of a closely-knit family
from the American South just as vividly and detailed as she presented the
entanglement of an English village community in her first book A FAR AND
DEADLY CRY. Here the women are steel magnolias who hold the reigns firmly
in their hands while the men fade into the background. Sometimes Holbrook
looks through the eyes of 4-year-old Katie Pru that was especially well
done. Like in the Appalachian folk ballad mysteries by Sharyn McCrumb the
key to the secrets of the present lies buried in a legend of the past.
Linnie Glynn Cane is the restless family ghost, and Holbrook ties in her
story with the events surrounding the death of her grandson Martin, but
she doesn’t let Linnie walk around and solve mysteries.
If you like mysteries that not only concentrate on the solution of a
crime but take the reader into a unique world should keep an eye out for
Teri Holbrook’s books. |
Any comments? Write us:
Christina Gross
|
