Miss Dimple Suspects
A Mystery
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
With the country in the midst of World War II, you can be sure the small town of Elderberry, Georgia, will pull together to find a missing child. And you can be equally certain that first-grade teacher, Miss Dimple Kilpatrick, will be in the search party—especially since Peggy Ashcroft is one of her students. Miss Dimple carves out a search path all her own and once again, the sharp-as-a-tack teacher is right on point. But she finds Peggy too sick to walk and it's too dark for Miss Dimple to find her way back.
Luckily, she comes upon the home of an elderly artist, Mae Martha, and her young companion, Suzy, who helps ensure that Peggy returns home safe and sound. A few days later, however, Miss Dimple receives a frantic call from Suzy: Mae Martha has been murdered and Suzy is seen as the most likely suspect, because her family is Japanese. Miss Dimple and her fellow teachers Annie and Charlie don't buy it; and set out to prove Suzy's innocence, only to discover danger where they least expect it.
Bringing warmth and nostalgia for small-town life, Mignon F. Ballard continues her "winning" (Publishers Weekly) cozy mystery series with Miss Dimple Suspects. Quick thinking and loyal to a fault, Miss Dimple is an amateur sleuth who will always stand up for what's right.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Ballard's quietly engaging third mystery set during WWII (after 2011's Miss Dimple Rallies to the Cause), Miss Dimple Kilpatrick, first-grade teacher at Elderberry (Ga.) grammar school, is quickly able to track a child lost in the woods to a remote farmhouse where she's being well cared for by reclusive artist Mae Martha Hawthorne and Mae's Asian companion, Suzy. Several days later, someone bludgeons Mae to death, and Mae's paintings, which have been increasing in value, disappear. Suspicion in the xenophobic town immediately falls on the missing Suzy, who's Japanese and named Suzu Amaya. Miss Dimple, practical and resolute, enlists the aid of two other primary school teachers to find Suzy, the canvases, and the murderer. They bungle their way through copious misadventures, putting themselves at grave risk. While a little too sweetly nostalgic and filled with stock characters, the book retains some bite and a few surprises.
