Hattie Hayes is from a long line of moonshiners, but she’s
probably the first make the stuff legally.
She’s staked her savings on opening her own store selling her very own
fruit-flavored moonshine in her hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee. She’s hoping to make a really good
impression, not just on the tourists but on the locals. She wants to network with some of the other
merchants and offer discounts but not everyone is receptive—especially not the owner
of a bar down the street.
Hattie soon learns that it’s not easy to run your own small
business. Between the light-fingered visitors and some cold shoulders from
competitors, Hattie could get discouraged. On the bright side, handsome mounted
policeman Marlon Landers seems to have taken a shine to her (yes, pun intended)
and stops by often, much to the consternation of her grandfather. It seems the Hayes and Landers families go
way back—and on opposite sides of the law.
However, when a body turns up and the murder weapon was a jar of
Hattie’s moonshine, she’s going to need all the help she can get.
Diane Kelly is a prolific cozy author, with several series
to her name. I have enjoyed her House Flipper Mystery series, so I
decided to give the Southern Homebrew
Mystery series a try. She’s staying
with the Tennessee setting, but moving from Nashville to Chattanooga, with many
mentions of Gatlinburg (aka the Tourist Trap of the South, as it is known in
some quarters.) Hattie is promoting her wares by playing on some Appalachian
stereotypes (a common Gatlinburg strategy) but that’s not something I
particularly care for. I won’t go into
all the pros and cons; I just tried to skim over those parts.
I also wasn’t enamored of Marlon’s referring to Hattie as
“little filly” soon after meeting her.
It’s supposed to be cute because he does love his police horse. It just seemed condescending to me, rather
than affectionate though it also made me think of Dudley Do-Right. (Rocky and Bullwinkle, anyone?)
On the up side, Kelly does a good job of plotting and
creating characters. I also love that
she gives us a good sense of place. Hattie’s grandfather is a handful, but he
adores his granddaughter. Kelly is an
animal person—one of her other series is called Paw Enforcement—so she knows to keep an eye on the animals, both
Hattie’s cat Smoky and Officer Landers’ horse.
Hattie herself is a spunky heroine and I think there could be
interesting things done with the setting and background.
As I recall, it took the second book to sell me on the House Flipper series, so I will
certainly give this one another try when the second book comes out next
year. It has definite possibilities.
Titles in the series are:
The Moonshine Shack Mystery
The Proof Is in the Poison (2022)
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