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The Southern Sisters Mysteries
Other Ficton
Poetry
Murder On A Girls' Night Out
Buying the Skoot 'n' Boot makes perfect sense to oversized, overimpulsive multiple widow Mary Alice. Her serious, respectable sister Patricia Anne thinks Mary Alice is out of her cotton pickin' mind, but Mary Alice insists that Country Western is hot and the Skoot 'n' Boot is where she and her current boyfriend hang out anyway. But not even sensible Patricia Anne could imagine that the day after Mary Alice shows her around the Skoot 'n' Boot, a body would be found strangled, stabbed, and dangling in the pub's wishing well. The sisters were the last to see the unfortunate victim alive so the sheriff has more than a few questions for them. And they had better get some answers, because a killer with some unfinished business is sending them some mighty frightening messages.
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Murder On A Bad Hair Day
It's hard to belive practical , petite, ex-schoolteacher Patricia Anne and amiable, ample-bodied, and outrageous Mary Alice are sisters, yet sibling rivalry has survived decades of good-natured disagreement about everything from husbands to hair color. No sooner do the Southern sisters discover a common interest in some local art, when they're arguing the artistic merits of some well-coiffured heads at a gallery opening. A few hours later, one of those pretty ladies ends up dead--with not a hair out of place. The other shows up on Patricia Anne's doorstep dazed, dishevelled, and telling a wild tale of a narrow escape from some deadly cuts. Now the sisters are once again combing for clues to catch a killer with a bizarre style in art--and murder.
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Murder Runs In the Family
Mary Alice has spared nothing for her only daughter's wedding--from seventy-five yards of bridal train to gourmet food for over three hundred guests and enough glittering elegance to make Mary Alice think about finding a fourth rich husband to pay for it all. Practical Patricia Anne has put away her aunt-of-the-bride blue chiffon and settled back into domesticity when fun-loving Mary Alice calls to say they have a post-wedding date with a genealogist from the groom's side of the family. Lunch is a fascinating lesson on the hazards of finding dirty linens in ancestral boudoirs that ends abruptly when their guest scurries off with the local judge, leaving the sisters with their mouths open--and finishing their luncheon companion's cheesecake--when the police arrive. Their mysterious guest has taken a plunge from the ninth floor of the courthouse building--an apparent suicide. But given the scandals a nosy genealogist might have uncovered, the sisters are betting that some proud Southern family is making sure their shameful secrets stay buried...along with anyone who tries to dig them up.
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Murder Makes Waves
Those hilarious southern sisters, who prove that sibling rivalry never ends, are heading for a vacation at the beach. Mary Alice's flamboyant behavior aside, serious, sensible Patricia Anne looks forward to relaxing at her sister's beachfront condo in Destin, Florida, so she kisses her ever-loving spouse Fred goodbye, reminds him to water the plants and feed the dog, and the girls head south for some fun in the sun. Mary Alice loses no time in making the acquaintance of just about everyone in sight, so watching the sun go down on the beautiful shores of the Gulf of Mexico is a welcome respite as far as Patricia Anne is concerned...until a dead body washes up in the waves and the victim turns out to be one of Mary Alice's newfound friends. With no witnesses to the crime except a few great blue herons, the sisters have no choice but to bypass the clueless police and follow their own instincts to find the killer. Before long they're on a murky trail of dirty real-estate deals, giant turtle habitats, and a sea of evidence pointing to a mammoth motive for murder.
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Murder Gets A Life
Those hilarious southern sisters--prim, proper Patricia Anne and outrageously improper Mary Alice--are back, trading barbs with wit, humor, and a precision born of decades of sibling rivalry. Agatha Award-winning author Anne George continues the chaotic adventures of her popular sister sleuths with a surprise wedding, a trailer park full of in-laws, and a corpse who never got a chance to meet the family. Patricia Anne can't imagine why Mary Alice is in such an uproar over her son Ray's new bride. Sunshine Dabbs is "cute as can be," even if she is a bit unconventional, which should hardly come as a shock to Mary Alice--given that she's the one who raised her boy. But with all her motherly instincts, Mary Alice is sure that this sweet little blonde Barbie doll--who met her son in Bora Bora after she won the trip on Wheel of Fortune--thinks she's found herself a fortune in Ray's hefty wallet. The sisters can't wait to get a look at Sunshine's family, and quite a look it turns out to be. As soon as Meemaw Turkett invites Mary Alice and Patricia Anne into her cozy trailer on the family compound they stumble over a corpse, and Meemaw's best hog butchering knife is stuck in its chest. Meemaw, a Cabbage Patch look-alike and Sunshine's grandmother, guardian, and the family matriarch is shocked to pieces and immediately summons the family to her trailer. Pawpaw, a lovable bearded grump has his own trailer, and their grown kids each enjoy a private home-away-from home on their five trailer compound. The discovery of the mysterious body brings in Mary Alice's nemesis, good ol' boy Sheriff Reuse, who, she knows from her experience at the Skoot 'n' Boot, is nothing but trouble. Within minutes, the compound is strewn with a weird collection of friends, neighbors and relatives. There's Meemaw's spooky channeler, ready to give guidance as needed; Sunshine's jilted boyfriend skulking around; a bunch of dogs ready to attack...and Kerrigan, Sunshine's mostly absentee mama, who stars in the kind of video flicks that might even shock Mary Alice. And once again there's a mystery to solve, with the sisters thrown into a cockeyed world of strange events and even stranger people. Because when it comes to murder, Mary Alice and Patricia Anne agree on one thing: Sheriff Reuse hasn't got a clue...not unless they put their heads together and push his nose in the right direction.
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Murder Shoots the Bull
Patricia Anne is shocked, but not exactly surprised, when her sister Mary Alice hits the bank president over the head with her umbrella. If they hadn't been born at home, Patricia Anne would swear they'd been mixed up somewhere. Flashy, flirtatious, and on the lookout for rich husband number four, Mary Alice is twice the body weight of her sensible sister, "Mouse," who's satisfied to stick with her longtime mate, good old reliable Fred. And this time, "Sister's" crazy behavior has landed them both in the Birmingham jail. It all starts when the sisters jump at the chance to get filthy rich by joining their good friend Mitzi Phizer in an investment club--kind of a Beardstown Ladies group--a bunch of amateurs pooling their money and making brilliant stock choices. Patricia Anne's conservative investment choice is a thriving chain of HMO's. Mary Alice is already loaded, but she's hot on the tail of the Viagra craze and sure the smart money is going on related products. But before Mitzi's club idea gets off the ground, the sisters discover Mitzi's supposedly faithful husband Arthur appears to be involved in a little hanky-panky with a woman of unknown origin. The next thing they know, Arthur is accused of killing her. It's a nasty image that doesn't fit kind, gentle Arthur any more than that of a cheating husband--even if he did have a sizable motive for murder...spelled MONEY. Despite the distractions of consoling her distraught daughter-in-law who claims her marriage is over, and telling Mary Alice to bug off with her calls about amorous Cedric, an Englishman with a pencil-thin mustache and a last name Sister can't remember, Patricia Anne is doing her darnedest to shore up her hapless neighbors, Mitzi and Arthur. But when there is a suspicious fire in the neighborhood and Arthur is shot in a place that won't allow him to sit down at his own murder trial, Patricia Anne she has to stand up for the poor fellow-- and check out everyone from low-down cads to high-brow bank presidents to find a no-good gun-toting arsonist who apparently has no qualms about committing murder.
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Murder Carries A Torch
Just back from vacation--where Patricia Anne spent quality time with her married daughter Haley and Mary Alice spent money on an pair of outrageously sexy hot purple boots-- the sisters are greeted by cousin Pukey Lukey who's in a terrible state. Pukey got his nickname from his childhood addiction to carsickness, but now poor Luke's problem is heartsickness. His wife of forty years, Virginia, has run off with a housepainter/preacher. Cousin Luke is so miserable the sisters agree to drive to the top of Chandler Mountain in search of Virginia and her newfound man of God. But no sooner do the three start snooping around the deserted grounds when Luke goes into the rundown old church and doesn't come out. Mary Alice and Patricia Anne rush in to investigate, and there's Luke--on the floor moaning and holding his injured head. Next to him is a pretty young redhead who isn't making a sound. She's dead. Luke is taken to the hospital; Sheriff Virgil Stuckey is called to investigate; the sisters find out the faithful are into snake-handling--and the Sheriff falls instantly in love with Mary Alice and her purple boots. But all is not heavenly at the Church Of Jesus Is Our Life And Heaven Hereafter. A venomous struggle for successor to the head holy man causes some to suspect the killing is the work of the legendary Chandler Mountain Booger, the region's own version of "Bigfoot." But Mary Alice and Patricia Anne suspect there's a real live murderer on the loose and they have plenty of questions to ask--including who killed the redhead and bopped Luke, who committed murder-by-snake, how does Luke's still-missing wife fit into the picture--and who tossed a live rattlesnake into the sister's very own car?
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Murder Boogies with Elvis
Oversized, outrageous Mary Alice and her prim sister Patricia Anne have been looking forward to the gala benefit being staged to raise money for the restoration of Vulcan, Birmingham's ever-tarnishing unnatural wonder. And what a show it is, with a grand finale that has thirty sequined Elvis impersonators high-kicking in unison! From the front row, "Mouse" and "Sister" have a perfect view of the action when one of the dancing Kings keels over dead into the bandstand. This Elvis clone has not only left the building ... he's left this life, courtesy of a switchblade knife in the back. And when the murder weapon turns up in Patricia Anne's very sensible purse, the perennially law-abiding "Mouse" is understandably all shook up. Suspicious minds have her pegged as the prime suspect in this bizarre case of Elvis elimination. And if she doesn't do some serious sleuthing, she could end up doing the Jailhouse Rock!
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Ordinary and Sacred As Blood: Alabama Women Speak
Anne George's short story entited About Mac is included in this book of stories and poetry from women authors of Alabama.
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This One and Magic Life
(author listed as Anne Carroll George)
A dark shadow envelops the grand old homestead overlooking Mobile Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, as a family gathers to mourn the untimely death of the remarkable woman who lived there. Artie Sullivan: world-famous artist, beloved daughter, sister, and aunt, her powerful presence still felt even in death; her last request shattering convention and causing painful discord among those who loved her. Bound by blood, marriage, illicit alliances, and a terrible secret still buried, each must deal with bittersweet memories, and words left unspoken. Artie's younger brother Hektor is devastated by the death of his sister, but it is Donnie, Artie's twin, who feels he has lost a part of his very soul, while his wife Mariel has lost a rival. Their daughter Dolly, who at twenty-seven is divorced from a man she still loves, is engulfed by huge sorrows of her own and has inherited the house filled with ghosts of the past. Yet in the often mysterious land of the deep South, where love and hatred run deep and close, and dissension often simmers just beneath the surface, Artie's passing has touched many others as well, and brings cousins, servants, and neighbors to a place where artificial boundries vanish. And in this unforgettable, almost-forbidden place of pain and love, loss and passion, each of the Sullivans will discover truths long buried in silence, in taboos, and in the heart.
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The Map That Lies Between Us
Anne George's collection of poetry, both new and compiled from her previous books from 1980-2000.
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