The Southern Cousins Mysteries #2: Elvis and the Grateful Dead by Peggy Webb
Cozy Mystery
This is not my usual type of book so I feel my review might be skewed. Usually, I like mysteries that a bit more hard-hitting, ones that focus on actual crimes solved by detectives or police. I also very much dislike books that try too hard to be "southern". For those reasons, I am scoring this book pretty low.
Callie is a hairdresser living in Tupelo, Mississippi, during an Elvis festival. As part of that festival, she is the hairdresser for the impersonators. Her sidekick is a basset-hound named Elvis who has his own chapters where he explains he is actually the reincarnated "King". During the festival, someone is killing off the impersonators and Callie takes it upon herself to solve the crime along with her "hot under the sequined collar" cousin. Mixed in is a very mixed-up relationship with her ex-husband who is apparently some sort of mobster. And, then there's her mother, the town kook.
There's a lot going on in this book, a bit too much for everything to get neatly solved by the end. Everyone is such a unique character that everyone comes off as a bit fake. There's never a sense this is more than a silly fiction story. Really, though, I was lost when the dog started talking. That's never a good thing. Never. And, don't even get me started with the fakey southern charm. It's just okay and a series I most certainly won't be reading more of.
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