"Whenever Sharyn McCrumb suits up her amateur detective, Elizabeth MacPherson, it's pretty certain that a trip is in the offing and that something deadly funny will happen on the road." --The New York Times Book Review Now, the author of She Walks These Hills brings her storytelling gifts to a novel about crimes committed a century apart. For forensic anthropologist Elizabeth MacPherson, solving mysteries hardly seems the fun it used to be--even if she is the official private investigator for her brother Bill's fledgling Virginia law firm. Then Bill and his feminist firebrand partner, A. P. Hill, take on two complex cases that will require Elizabeth's special participation. Eleanor Royden, a perfect lawyer's wife for twenty years, has shot her ex-husband and his beautiful late-model wife in cold blood. And Donna Jean Morgan finds herself married to a Bible-thumping bigamist who has the nerve to die in circumstances that implicate his wife. A. P. does her damnedest for Eleanor, an abused wife in denial, and Bill gallantly defends Donna Jean. Meanwhile, Elizabeth's forensic expertise, including her special knowledge of poisons, gives her the most challenging case of her career. As questions of wife abuse and abandonment emerge in the court of public opinion, Elizabeth becomes a war correspondent in the battle of the sexes--a battle as old as the hills and unlikely to reach a truce any time soon.... Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Three grievously wronged women take murderous revenge in this sharp-edged, witty tale, the eighth appearance of forensic anthropologist Elizabeth MacPherson. Her skills at research and detection come into play when she is hired as an investigator by her brother Bill's Virginia law firm. Bill has been asked to defend a woman accused of poisoning her philandering husband, a piously hypocritical preacher. Another law partner, the resolute Amy Powell Hill, ponders how best to defend a Richmond socialite who gleefully admits to shooting both her ex-husband and his new wife. Intertwined with these contemporary cases is a 19th-century mystery: How did a genteel Southern lady manage to poison her wealthy Yankee husband? Buoyed by intriguing characters, a wry‘sometimes macabre‘wit, and lush Virginia atmosphere, McCrumb's (MacPherson's Lament; The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter) mystery spins merrily along on its own momentum, concluding that justice will triumph... but in surprising ways. Mystery Guild selection. (June) From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Will McCrumb once again grace the best sellers lists with her seventh Elizabeth MacPherson mystery? From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Author Sharyn McCrumb was born in Wilmington, North Carolina on February 26, 1948. She graduated from the University of North Carolina and received an M.A. in English from Virginia Tech. Her novels primarily deal with the history and folklore of Appalachia. She has won numerous awards for her work including the Wilma Dykeman Award for Regional Historical Literature from the East Tennessee Historical Society, the Sherwood Anderson Short Story Award, the Appalachian Writer of the Year Award from Shepherd College, the Chaffin Award from Morehead State University, the Plattner Award from Berea College, and two Appalachian Writer's Association's Best Appalachian Novel Awards. Also, she has been writer-in-residence at King College in Tennessee and Shepherd College in West Virginia and has lectured on her work at universities and libraries throughout the United States and Europe.

(Bowker Author Biography) Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.