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Review
Death, Guns, and Sticky Buns
Death, Guns, and Sticky Buns by
Valerie S. Malmont

Dell Publishing
308 pages, 2000
ISBN 0440235987
Reviewed by PJ Nunn

Read our author interview
Read our review of Death, Snow and Mistletoe - the fourth in this series.


Tori Miracle is back in her new position as editor of the Licken Creek Chronicle. With her beau out of town on extended assignment, there's not much to keep Tori out of the troubling situations she inevitably seems to find.

Determined to remedy her somewhat tarnished newcomer reputation, Tori jumps at the chance to co-sponsor an upcoming event with the local women's college. Surely that will put her back in the town's good graces. What could go wrong at a Civil War reenactment ceremony? Murder, that's what.

When former Congressman Mack Macmillan stood before the firing squad, their guns were supposed to be loaded with blanks! As a co-sponsor of the event that culminated in his death, Tori is being held responsible by college administrators to help uncover the facts. Although she is reasonably competent at ferreting out the truth, she keeps finding answers that lead to more questions and nothing makes sense. When life threatening events start to plague her wherever she goes, she explains them away as coincidental, but they soon become so blatant there's no logical way to explain it. Somebody wants her dead.

Death, Guns, And Sticky Buns is the third in the Tori Miracle series. Malmont has created a charming fictional setting in the tiny town of Licken Creek, with word pictures so precise readers will visualize the scenery and inhale the tempting aroma of coffee and sticky buns. Definitively cozy, complete with cats, the book has delightfully unique qualities that set it apart. Of particular note is Tori's brush with breast cancer, a surprising insertion that is deftly incorporated in the story line. Death, Guns, And Sticky Buns is a fresh, lighthearted mystery, balanced with sobering undertones that clearly demonstrate Tori's evolution as a character and Malmont's growth as a writer.


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