Next of Kin (Avalon Mystery)

By Ami Elizabeth Reeves

Welcome to Delight, Arkansas, where the roots of family trees grow so deep, old secrets poison the groundwater.

When marathoner Sally Brown shows up in Arkansas, her sister Suzanne gives her such a chilly reception that even ten-mile runs can't warm her. Then reporter Bobbie Lou Voight--who's been snooping into Suzanne's past--turns up dead during Delight's chicken cook-off.

Could pregnant Suzanne have wielded the lethal weapon? What about the beauty queen cheated out of the Miss Arkansas crown years ago by the deceased? Even local restaurateur R.D. Blackwell is under suspicion, what with those regular cash payments he'd been making to Bobbie Lou.

As a fifty-foot tall chicken statue named Shorty keeps an eye on all the citizens of Delight, the mystery surrounding Sally's sheltered childhood unravels at an even pace with her race to uncover the killer.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803497296
• ISBN13: 9780803497290
• Release Date: June 2005
• Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
• Length: 218 Pages
• Weight: 0.72 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.8" x 1.0" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

If it smells unusual; it must be Wednesday in Vinita

Having just returned home from an author meet and greet, I feel inspired to retell the evening's moments. Ami Elizabeth Reeves is a native Oklahoma mystery writer, her first published work "Next of Kin" is a quirky, imaginative story both relating to the suspicious events in a small town and the complex subplots of the characters involved. The author's personal back-story is an interesting and down to earth one; learning of the author brings the story to life, either the inspirations behind the novel to her own personal story; it's all fascinating. Ami Reeves is a charming woman and an excellent writer, I daresay I speak for others when I say her sequel to "Next of Kin," which is currently being worked on and is expected to go into publication works at the first of the year will be greatly anticipated and explored.

A delightful Southern mystery, well-written

Quirky characters come together for the annual Delight Arkansas Chicken Festival and murder mars the celebration. Delight is home to the Sayre chicken empire. Nationally acclaimed High School star distance runner, Sally Brown, arrives from Phoenix after a 16-year absence. The reconciliation with her sister, Suzanne Sayre Holden, does not go as planned. Suzanne's husband Mug is embroiled in an iffy real estate deal with local restauranteur R.D. Blackwell. RD is being blackmailed by reporter Bobbie Lou Voight, who's having an affair with Suzanne's husband. Bobbie Lou has an uneasy history with Battle Jonley from their beauty queen days. And Johnny Gant III is a drop dead gorgeous male whose butter sculpture is smashed by Bobbie Lou before it can be entered in the annual sculpting contest. Well guess who gets bludgeoned to death by a frozen chicken? Bobbie Lou. Someone she's victimized so ruthlessly has turned on her, but who? And why? One secret after another is revealed as Bobbie Lou's death is investigated. I enjoyed this book. It was like sitting on a big front porch, sipping sweet tea and watching the goings on at a safe distance.

Next of kin - next big thing?

Ami Reeves' Next of Kin is quirky, endearing, and will keep you guessing until the very last page! With a cast of colorful characters and enough plot twists to make the most seasoned mystery reader swoon, this debut novel effectively captures the politics of a small-town while interweaving complex subplots of love, loss, and murder. If you're into chick lit and/or mystery novels, put this book next on your To Read list!! I'm anxious to see what Ms. Reeves comes out with next!

A Fresh New Voice in Southern Fiction

When reporter Bobbie Lou Voight is murdered at a Delight Arkansas chicken cook-off, the only thing more outrageous than the quirky suspects is the murder weapon itself. In the midst of the small-town chaos enters Sally Brown, track star and recent teenage runaway. She's come to stay with her sister Suzanne and husband Mug, but the reception she gets is somewhat unwelcome, and their marriage smacks of secrets and infidelity. But Sally has her own past to escape; an abusive mother and a condo in Phoenix that stank of old cat food. There is the matter of the van she "borrowed" from her good friend Fish McCorty, and an incident on a running trail she is desperately trying to forget. Better things may be on the way, as she realizes she's known only part of her family's history, and with the help of Johnny Third, suddenly abandoned by his young wife, she may just get a fresh lease on life. If only she doesn't get in the killer's way first. With prose as tight as a saltwater fishing line, and a driving sense of place, Ms. Reeves distinguishes herself as gifted young writer.

Murder Mystery is Sure to Delight

Not all hunks hang out in chambray shirts and skin tight blue jeans, eating sushi on their way to the gym. Some of them knock around in gym shorts and cowboy boots, slurping up cold cereal before heading out to their jobs at the local chicken restaurant. Not all heroines are trendy, rich twenty-somethings with glam jobs and manicures. Some of them are track-star runaways who drive VW busses. Not all murders are committed in dark alleyways with anonymous knives. Sometimes they're committed in the most unlikely of places...with a most unlikely weapon. Meet Sally Brown, a high school track star from Phoenix out to shed her mother's tyranny and beat her nemesis's one mile record by "borrowing" her best friend's van and running away to her sister's house in Delight, Arkansas. Within hours of being in Delight, she finds out through a local reporter that she's going to "turn the town upside down." When the same reporter later turns up murdered at the annual Arkansas Chicken Cook-Off, found by Sally herself in a room of the hotel where the cook-off is being held, the whole town of Delight is indeed turned upside down. Sally meets a whole host of unlikely characters, such as Johnny Third with his amazingly poor driving skills and his dream of becoming a food sculptor; Miss LuElla, her frightful and dying grandmother; Mug Holden, her quiet and elusive brother-in-law; and a nine months pregnant Suzanne, her sister, who has some major anxiety issues. Throw into the mix one Battle Jonley, beauty queen gone thick around the middle; RD Blackwell, mayoral candidate with a few secrets to hide; and Honey Dillon, a mammoth female bodyguard, and the murder is bound to be a mystery, one that isn't easily solved. Who killed the reporter at the cook-off? Why? And what does it all have to do with Sally Brown? NEXT OF KIN, by Ami Elizabeth Reeves, is a thriller the likes of which is not often seen. It is fun and rich while maintaining the whodunit plot beautifully. Reeves works hard to keep the novel light and amusing - not easy when the premise is murder - and creates a crime the reader just can't help but chuckle over. The characters in NEXT OF KIN are the cornerstone of the story. With plots so twisted they'd give Shakespeare a run for his money and people so "real" they remind you of your second cousin twice removed, the characters keep the story going. Everyone in Delight, it seems, has a story to tell, a secret to hide, a quirk to take them down. There's enough symbolism in the story to keep an English teacher busy for a decade; yet somehow Reeves manages to keep the story from drowning in it. Instead, the reader is likely to make a fun game of hunting down symbolic names and places, left with the impression that the author orchestrated each move of writing the story carefully, something that shows in the tidiness of the tale. When it comes to murder mysteries, Ami Elizabeth Reeves's novel, NEXT OF KIN, is in a class of its own. It's