Bradley, North Carolina is a quiet and small southern town. The local jail is like the one on the TV program Mayberry RFD. Bradley also has one policeman and the town is not in the midst of a crime wave. In fact nothing much happens in Bradley. That is not until Parke Stockard moved in from New York and started bullying people into selling their property for her developments.
So when Parke was discovered by Myrtle one morning dead at the foot of the Alter with her big arrangement of Roses spilled all around no one was much upset. It seems that there were a lot of people in town who wanted her gone.
Myrtle is 80 years old and is tired of being treated like she is frail and “old” by everyone. So, the discovery of a murdered woman is just her cup of tea. Now she has a mission. She will solve the crime and find the murderer before her son, Red, who is also the Bradley cop, can do it. She will show everyone that she is not ready to be checked into the nursing home yet.
Myrtle manages to get one of the local widowers to become her sidekick. She needs someone to bounce ideas on and to drive her around so she can question the various suspects. She has her cane and her stubborn resolve and even though someone tries to kill her by pushing her into the lake one night she is not discouraged. Even when there is a second murder she is not deterred.
Myrtle operates on her gut feelings and gets down to the bottom of each suspect’s feelings and nature. When she finally narrows it down and goes to search the desk of the man she is certain is the murderer she finds herself confronted by the man and he has a big knife he wishes to use to carve her up and end her “meddling Myrtle” ways. But, as you might imagine, Myrtle escapes and bashes him on the head keeping him down until her son can arrive to make the arrest. Myrtle is the hero.
“Pretty is as Pretty Dies” is a most entertaining and cozy mystery. It deserves a 7 of 10 on the Weaver meter.
