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MISS DIMPLE SUSPECTS
by Mignon F. Ballard
Minotaur Books, January 2013
272 pages
$24.99
ISBN: 1250009677


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

When little Peggy Ashcroft leaves her sick bed to search for her missing cat, she sets off a series of occurrences which uncovers the dark side of Elderberry, Georgia. When the rest of the search party packs it in for the night, Peggy's schoolteacher, Miss Dimple Kilpatrick, decides to continue looking. When she finds Peggy, she is being watched over by a dog who guides Miss Dimple with the girl to the home of an elderly artist. The artist's nurse and Miss Dimple nurse tend the child throughout the night and in the morning Peggy is returned to her parents. That would be the end of the story, except that the nurse is a Japanese-American and this is small town Georgia during World War II. When Mae Martha, the artist, is found murdered, the "Jap" nurse is the only suspect anyone needs - except Miss Dimple who has seen the nurse for the person she is.

Much has been written about the internment of the Japanese-Americans from the West Coast during World War II. Mignon Ballard brings a different angle to the story in MISS DIMPLE SUSPECTS. While the fear on the West Coast was due in part to the sheer numbers of Japanese and Japanese-Americans, in rural Georgia, virtually no one had ever seen someone of Asian ancestry and so the nurse would have been suspicious to the citizens of Elderberry in the best of situations. But a war was on and young men from Georgia were dying at the hands of the Japanese, and so the nurse, Miss Suzy, was guilty in most people's eyes whether there was evidence or not.

Fortunately for Miss Suzy, Miss Dimple, Virginia the librarian and various other regular characters in the series were on a mission to uncover the truth behind Mae Martha's murder in spite of the busybody Mavis Kilgore. When the women took a closer look at some of the odd things going on at and around the artist's home, they exposed some wrongdoings and put themselves in grave danger.

MISS DIMPLE SUSPECTS is a solid entry in the series. The mystery is well thought out with enough red herrings to keep readers guessing until the end. There is a second heartwarming plot as well which will surely please readers who appreciate a cosy.

Caryn St.Clair resides in University City, Missouri and is a former elementary school media specialist, President of the Parks Commission and a docent at the St.Louis Zoo.

Reviewed by Caryn St Clair, January 2013

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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