Book Review: Drumsticks

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Drumsticks     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Charlotte Carter
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Amateur Sleuth   Ethnic
Series: Nanette Hayes # 3
Mysterious, Feb 2000, $22.95, 212 pp.

Nanette Hayes returns to New York feeling depressed after her Paris relationship with Charlie Rouse ended. Nanette turns to the bottle to help her forget. However, her suicidal binge with alcohol isolates her from her friends and leaves her family worried about her.

Life change for Nanette when she receives a voodoo doll as a present. Things suddenly begin happening for Nanette as she obtains work in a jazz club and a check arrives that Nanette gave up on ever obtaining. A grateful Nanette relishes her new luck that the doll apparently brought with her. Nanette visits the doll-maker to thank the elderly woman, Ida Williams. Nanette invites Ida to watch her perform, but just as she starts to play the sax, someone murders Ida. Feeling guilty for causing her guest’s death, Nanette begins to make inquires into the murder, not realizing the danger she places herself in from a cool killer.

DRUMSTICKS, The third Nanette Hayes novel (see the rousing Rhode Island RED and the delightful COQ AU VIN), is an enjoyable amateur sleuth tale. The who-done-it and the why it was done storyline is fun to follow as Nanette and her support crew dig for the truth. Saucy Nanette is an intriguing middle class African-American woman struggling with her identity. Through this protagonist, Charlotte Carter provides her audience with a triumphant novel worth reading.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner