About Me

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Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada
I am a lawyer in Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada who enjoys reading, especially mysteries. Since 2000 I have been writing personal book reviews. This blog includes my reviews, information on and interviews with authors and descriptions of mystery bookstores I have visited. I strive to review all Saskatchewan mysteries. Other Canadian mysteries are listed under the Rest of Canada. As a lawyer I am always interested in legal mysteries. I have a separate page for legal mysteries. Occasionally my reviews of legal mysteries comment on the legal reality of the mystery. You can follow the progression of my favourite authors with up to 15 reviews. Each year I select my favourites in "Bill's Best of ----". As well as current reviews I am posting reviews from 2000 to 2011. Below my most recent couple of posts are the posts of Saskatchewan mysteries I have reviewed alphabetically by author. If you only want a sentence or two description of the book and my recommendation when deciding whether to read the book look at the bold portion of the review. If you would like to email me the link to my email is on the profile page.

Monday, October 9, 2017

Sweetheart Deal by Claire Matturro

(34. – 921.) Sweetheart Deal by Claire Matturro (2007) – Lilly Belle Rose Cleary, the sassy acerbic germ phobic vegetarian medical malpractice attorney from Sarasota, returns to her hometown of Bugfest, Georgia when she is called by her respectable brother Dan because their mother, Willette, is in the local hospital heavily sedated after being arrested for killing a repo man, Ray Glenn, who had come to her home to with regard a deep freeze.

It is murky why he was there about a deep freeze. She had needed a new refrigerator. Dan had made the purchase for her as Willette had not been out of her house for years.

She would not allow anyone, including family, into her home. Dan would occasionally speak to her on the phone but never in person. Some days he would talk to her through the locked front door. Her grandson, Bobby, now a teenager had never actually spoken directly to his grandmother.

Lilly Belle has had little use for her mother since she kicked her and her bad brother, Delvon, out of the house when they were teenagers.

As for Bugfest she left town with Delvon the night of her graduation from high school.

Two decades have passed since graduation but Lilly Belle remains resentful of the life she endured in Bugfest as a teenager. She has returned not so much for the sake of Willette but to help Dan cope with the situation.

As Lilly Belle tries to find out what happened Dan and his wife, Patti Lea, set out to clean Willette’s house. It is a daunting task. It is one vast hoard of papers and used tissues. It is dark and filthy and disgusting. It is a striking irony that Lilly Belle, obsessed with cleanliness, is called upon to help with the house. It takes a major effort of will for Lilly Belle to even enter the home.

As Lilly Belle investigates she learns there is a major local controversy over a plan to enlarge a local lake to create a new recreational area which will have a major resort and lots of new expensive homes. Several land owners are opposed but are facing the county using the doctrine of eminent domain to take their properties so the development can proceed.

Adding to Lilly Belle’s upset with her mother was her mother’s sale of the country home and 40 acres in the vicinity of the lake of Lily Belle’s grandmother. The buyer, Lonnie, was the high school heartthrob of her youth though he never dated Lilly Belle. Eventually Lily Belle comes across the sale documents in which Willette sold the property, not through a contract for sale but by a contract for deed. That form of sale is a form of vendor financing where the title stays in the name of the vendor until the full purchase price is paid. Among the many questions for Lilly Belle is whether the purchase price was fully paid.

Aiding Lilly Belle is her high school classmate, the brassy Shalonda, now married to the Sheriff, Demetrious. In a reflection of the new South Demetrious is African American.

Lilly Belle and Shalonda were a dynamic duo in high school and are just as formidable twenty years later.

Competing with the murder for attention in Bugfest is the rapidly approaching Mule Day, the social event of the summer. Sheriff Demetrious owns a leading contestant, in BB (Big Beauty).

The story rollicks along with Lilly Belle whirling her way through the sedate country life of Bugfest.

Matturro has a talent for comic writing. Readers will be smiling at the antics of the residents of Bugfest and Lilly Belle’s discomfort at being back in town. Physical discomfort comes in a scene where Lilly Belle hides a tape recorder in her bra. Among the challenges of the hidden recorder is turning it and off.

I enjoyed Sweetheart Deal but not as much as earlier books in the series. My next post discusses the reasons.
****
Matturro, Claire – (2008) - Skinny-Dipping; (2008) - Wildcat Wine; (2009) - Bone Valley Hardcover

8 comments:

  1. That sounds like an interesting way to shed light on Lilly's backstory, Bill. And I do appreciate an author who can integrate wit into a solid story. I look forward to your more in-depth comments.

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    1. Margot: Thanks for the comment. Wit is hard to write but so effective when well done.

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  2. Bill, the circumstances under which Lilly Belle returns home, to help her brother, Dan, is an interesting element in this novel. I like it when authors give us a backstory, or a personal glimpse into the lives of the protagonists.

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  3. Prashant: Thanks for the comment. It was interesting.

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  4. In my search for funny legal mysteries at the library, I found Skinny Dipping, but as an e-book, which I haven't figured out yet.

    But I searched for Paul Levine's books and there are several Jake Lassiter books, but the Solomon v. Lord are also in e-books. However, Bum Rap, which looks like it features all three characters is in paper book format, so I put it on hold. Looks hilarious. Can't wait.

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    1. Kathy D.: Thanks for the comment. It is curious that two of the funniest fictional lawyers are both in Florida.

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  5. And I found used copies of the Solomon v. Lord books at Abe Books, used, but they're $3 and change with free shipping. So, I'm happy. Can't wait for some good lawyerly repartee.

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    1. Kathy D.: Thanks for the comment. You have good reading ahead. Solomon and Lord have some striking verbal encounters and Solomon's Laws are amazing.

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