THE CURSE OF THE BRIDAL CHAMBER

A road trip to a Florida mermaid theme park goes terribly wrong.

Imogene; her hypochondriac son, Billy; her sister, Agnes; Billy's life partner, Jackson; and their bulldog, Goose, have driven from their Alabama home to Clear Springs Park expecting a relaxing vacation. Things go wrong from the start when their ride on a glass-bottom boat gives them a clear view of a body floating in the water. Capt. Stedman has just finished telling them the ancient tale of a pair of star-crossed lovers found dead together in the part of the river since christened the Bridal Chamber. He didn't even mention the body of Grant Scroggins, which was found floating in the river in 1972. When the dead man John Kent’s wallet is found in Goose’s baby carriage, Billy is arrested, and Jackson is frantic to get him released. Imogene and Agnes, who are made of tougher fabric, decide to do a little sleuthing on their own. They steal a golf cart, adopt a wild baby monkey, and dig into the murky past of Capt. Stedman and former mermaid Esther Wiggins, Clear Springs events coordinator. They also meet the photographer who made the park famous; the love of his life, a former mermaid in the nearby water park for African-Americans; a tough-talking current mermaid; and the wife and son of John Kent , who were on the boat when his body was discovered. Imogene, who’s sure that all these people hiding past secrets are better suspects than Billy, plans to prove that one of them is the real killer.

The heroine’s second outing (Imogene in New Orleans, 2014), packed with zany characters, nicely captures the feeling of a Florida water park. But the mystery is scattershot, and it takes forever to unveil the killer.