I was absolutely thrilled to read A Little Death in Dixie by Lisa Turner since I have read Devil Sent the Rain book three in this series. I love that the story is set in Memphis, for some reason do I love reading stories set in the American South, especially crime stories. And, this one was no exception.

Like in Devil Sent the Rain must Billy Able solve a mystery that involves women he knows. In this case, it's a woman that Billy for years helped getting out of problems with the law (drinking and driving together is never a good idea), but now she has disappeared. She has done it before, but this time it seems to be more serious like someone wants to get rid of her.

This book is good, I quite liked this story, there were some slower moments when I felt that I wanted to speed up the investigations, also it was hardly surprising to learn who this books big bad was. However, there were some surprising moments towards the end of the book and all and all did I quite like this book and can't wait to read The Gone Dead Train that is waiting on my kindle app. And, I do hope more books will be written about Billy Abel because he is such a fabulous character!

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review! ( )

Born and raised in Memphis and an avid serial fiction reader, I was looking forward to this. Right off the bat I encountered annoying character names, really, really annoying names. The mystery started out fairly strong but carried on for far too long and then took a super wrong term with a really cheap plot twist-very disappointing from there on. ( )

Very good book. Kept me interested until the end. ( )

Very good book. Kept me interested until the end. ( )

It's over-written. There's enough crime and enough characters here for a 600 page novel, and "A Little Death in Dixie" is not quite 300 pages. It's good, it has a lot of pluses, and it could have been a lot better. Until I got into the second half, I figured I had a 5-star book here, but then it all became too much. The protagonist is Memphis Police Detective Sergeant Billy Able. Billy and his partner Lou are investigating the recent disappearance of Sophie, an attractive, well to do woman well known to the police for her frequent benders and her well placed acquaintances. And she and Billy had been an item at one time. Then there's her mother Gloria, sister Mercy, and her husband. And the Judge. And the Judge's croquet partners (see where this is going). And Charles who bags Sophie's groceries at the super market where she was last seen. Suddenly and unexpectedly, one of the supporting cast is dead, but we soon meet another dozen characters. The investigation continues despite considerable pressure from the next levels of police management to drop it. So, the basic plot is quite good, and the story unfolds nicely. Author Turner gives a real southern feel to her book, and we readers come away with a fairly detailed picture of Memphis warts and all. The characters are interesting and well drawn up. Despite the large cast I had no problem keeping everybody straight. Unfortunately, a few of the more interesting ones wind up going to jail or get promoted, and so will not likely appear in future books. And the setting for book 2 seems likely to change, which is also unfortunate, but it will stay southern which is a plus. So, I will read the 2nd book (actually it has been released recently and its good reviews are what drew me to this series). However, if Ms. Turner hasn't tightened things up a bit or "Gone Dead Train", it'll be sayonara for me. One last aside - let's see we've had "Gone Girl", "Girl on the Train", and now we have "Gone Dead Train". I think we've done about all we can with "gone", "girl", and "train" for crime fiction titles, let's move on. ( )