MEET ISABEL PUDDLES

A Michigan widow with a strong sense of justice solves a series of crimes.

Famously frugal Isabel Puddles has lived in her family’s Gull Harbor lakeside home for most of her life and intends to die there. Now that her children are grown and gone, she struggles to pay for the extras in life, including taxes, in an area of summer homes owned primarily by wealthy outsiders. To keep up, she sells her popular pickles and pies, works at her cousin’s hardware store, and reluctantly accepts a hairdressing job at a funeral home. That’s how she discovers a nail in the head of wealthy farmer Earl Jonasson. Isabel’s call to her cousin Ginny, who’s engaged to sheriff Grady Pemberton, kicks off an investigation that leads to the arrest of Earl’s son, whose girlfriend, Tammy Trudlow, is more of a fighter than a lover, according to Isabel. Earl Jr. isn’t the brightest bulb, and his sister, Meg, is furious that anyone would think he could kill his father—a judgment Isabel shares, although her loudmouthed bestie, Frances Spitler, voices an alternative opinion to a reporter. Although Isabel thinks Tammy had something to do with the death, Grady ignores her, forcing her to use her wide network to dig up clues that will prove her right. Her decision to take in Earl’s lonely dog, Corky, as a companion for her dearly loved Jackpot leads to a breathtaking denouement.

A charming debut featuring a middling mystery, a captivating cast, and many spells of laugh-out-loud humor.