Peaches and Screams: A Savannah Reid Mystery by G. A. McKevett

Publishers Weekly

Savannah Reid makes a good showing in this strong series' latest volume (Just Desserts, etc.) when she travels home to small town McGill, Ga., for her sister Marietta's third wedding. Before the rehearsal can start, unpopular Judge Patterson is found shot to death, and his valuable collection of Confederate war medals has vanished. Worse is to come the missing medals turn up in the toolshed Savannah's youngest brother, Macon, has fixed up for his private apartment. Worst of all, prosecuting attorney Mack Goodwin, the late judge's son-in-law, is determined to see Macon "strapped to a table with a needle in his arm." Before standing up with her sister, Savannah must stand by her brother and clear his name. Certainly none of her seven other siblings is capable of lifting a finger to help do the laundry, much less some legwork. But her best friends, Detective Sergeant Dirk Coulter and Tammy Hart, factotum at Savannah's Midnight Magnolia Detective Agency in California, ride (in a rental car from the airport) to the rescue. Some of the secondary characters are merely sketched in, like the shiftless, lazy Macon, but the main characters are carefully portrayed, their actions realistic and engrossing. In particular, Savannah's increasing exasperation with her siblings and devotion to the grandmother who raised her, as well as a nostalgic flirtation with her first beau, strike a chord with anyone who has sighed for the might-have-been. The pseudonymous McKevett also delivers a surprise ending with panache the clues are there! (Jan. 8) Forecast: Like previous titles in the series, this novel boasts eye-catching jacket art, though the black cat, an incidental figure in the plot, would seem to be there chiefly to lure cat cozy fans. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

When her sister Marietta gets married again private detective Savannah Reid (Bitter Sweets) revisits her Southern roots. The arrest of their baby brother for murdering a philandering judge postpones the event, however, until Savannah can make things right. A luscious heroine, humor, and down-home characters. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Some burdens are unavoidable. Southern California transplant Savannah Reid, the oldest of nine children, knows that she has to go back to her hometown of McGill, Georgia, for her sister Marietta's third wedding, even if it means wearing a fluorescent orange bridesmaid's gown. And she knows she'll have to face deputy sheriff Tommy Stafford, who years ago introduced her to the pleasures of teen lust before unceremoniously dumping her for Lisa Mooney. But what private eye Savannah (Sour Grapes, 2000, etc.) doesn't find out until her arrival is that she'll also have to solve the murder of rich, philandering Judge Patterson-and solve it right quick, or prosecuting attorney Mack Goodwin, who's Patterson's son-in-law, will have her brother Macon strapped to a gurney ready for a lethal injection. Most of her siblings are pretty well useless: Marietta, Vidalia, Jessup, and even straitlaced Cordele can't think of anything better to do than dump their dirty laundry on Granny Reid's porch and pack away pounds of fried chicken. And the judge's estranged wife Bonnie and her flashy boyfriend Alvin Barnes are downright obstructive. Lucky for Savannah that her West Coast buds-first and foremost Detective Sergeant Dick Coulter and Tammy Hart, the assistant at Savannah's Moonlight Magnolias Detective Agency-come through to help Savannah collar the perp. A whodunit as old-fashioned and satisfying as one of Granny Reid's bacon-egg-and-grits breakfasts.

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