Drumsticks

By Charlotte Carter

Book Overview

A New York Times Best Crime Novel of the Year

In the third book in the Nanette Hayes Mystery series, Nan finds a voodoo doll is bringing her some much needed luck...until the doll's maker is murdered and Nan is dragged into the investigation.

Nanette is on the rocks. Heartbroken and alone, she finds what comfort she can in the bottom of a bottle. But her life seems to turn around when she's given a voodoo doll, so much so that Nan seeks out the doll's creator, Ida, to thank her. Unfortunately, the meeting doesn't go so well, and Ida ends up with a bullet in her head.

Guilt-ridden, Nan resolves to get justice for her new friend, only to find that Ida was hiding some dark skeletons in her closet. Now plunged into a dangerous world she doesn't understand, Nan will have to team up with some unlikely allies, like her estranged father, a high school principal, and Leland Sweet, an NYPD officer with whom Nan has some major history. But will Nan solve Ida's murder or fall victim to the same forces that brought her down?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 059331414X
• ISBN13: 9780593314142
• Release Date: September 2021
• Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.1" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Worth Reading for Nanette

If you enjoy character driven mysteries, you'll love Drumsticks. However, the plot was a bit confusing and unbelievable. I gave it 4 stars because despite it's flaws it's always fun to hang out with Nanette Hayes for 200 or so pages!

Great!

Nanette is at it again, I love this series. I laughed and laughed. Charlotte Carter is the one of the best and her Nanette will keep you interested. I can't wait to see what will happen with Andre....Thank you Charlotte for the entertainment.

Excellent mystery with a trace of whoo-whoo

Nanette Hayes returns to New York feeling depressed after her Paris relationship with Charlie Rouse ended. Nanette turns to the bottle to help her forget. However, her suicidal binge with alcohol isolates her from her friends and leaves her family worried about her. Life change for Nanette when she receives a voodoo doll as a present. Things suddenly begin happening for Nanette as she obtains work in a jazz club and a check arrives that Nanette gave up on ever obtaining. A grateful Nanette relishes her new luck that the doll apparently brought with her. Nanette visits the dollmaker to thank the elderly woman, Ida Williams. Nanette invites Ida to watch her perform, but just as she starts to play the sax, someone murders Ida. Feeling guilty for causing her guest's death, Nanette begins to make inquires into the murder, not realizing the danger she places herself in from a cool killer. DRUMSTICKS, The third Nanette Hayes novel (see the rousing Rhode Island RED and the delightful COQ AU VIN), is an enjoyable amateur sleuth tale. The who-done-it and the why it was done storyline is fun to follow as Nanette and her support crew dig for the truth. Saucy Nanette is an intriguing middle class African-American woman struggling with her identity. Through this protagonist, Charlotte Carter provides her audience with a triumphant novel worth reading.Harriet Klausner