Book Review: Best Served Cold

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Best Served Cold     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Jimmie Ruth Evans
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Woman Main Character   Amateur Sleuth   Cozy
Series: Trailer Park Mysteries
Berkley, Jan 2007, $6.99

Wanda Nell Culpepper lives in Tullahoma, but lately has had a tough time of it. She has adjusted to the fact that her son T.J. has a significant other who is a male and her middle child Miranda has given her a black granddaughter and supports the two of them and her youngest daughter Juliet. Wanda works at the Kountry Kitchen and the supermarket to pay the bills.

One evening while working at the Kountry Kitchen, her younger brother Rusty enters the premises. She has not seen him in over a decade, but he makes it clear that he has not come home to see her. Instead he is seen fighting with Reggie until his compatriot is found murdered. After the police interrogate him, Rusty vanishes. Bert Vines threatens Wanda to quit nosing around. Coach Scott Simpson commits suicide soon after he spoke with Rusty and Wanda Nell. The sheriff’s son Marty Shaw threatens Wanda as he knows Rusty has come home to insure the piper is paid with people paying with their lives.

BEST SERVED COLD is an old fashioned southern cozy that provides the audience with a sense of the darkness hidden beneath the façade of the small charming town. Jimmie Ruth Evans creates characters who readers care about especially the beleaguered protagonist, her three children, her grandson and her to the rescue gun totin' neighbor. Though exhausted from family demands, her two jobs, and now the threats Wanda proves she is quite the heroine as she adds on to her plate protecting her sibling.

Harriet Klausner

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