Deborah Adams — All the Great Pretenders

Ballantine 1991 Paperback, 215pp. Twin Elms Inn Was Becoming a Three-Ring Circus..featuring the disappearing act of an eccentric rich girl and the psychic hired to find her. Innkeeper Kate Yancy has all she can do just to live there, let alone manage the place -- coping with a beauty-queen chambermaid, a religious-fanatic cook, a handful of eccentric guests, and a yardful of reporters. It's a heady shot of excitement for little Jesus Creek, Tennessee, already in the throes of a Sesquicentennial celebration. Murder is the only thing missing -- but not for long. Set in the sultry heat of a Southern summer, Deborah Adams's first mystery is alight with small-town mischief, modest mayhem, and a homespun cast of unforgettable characters who turn a rural shindig into a real-life soap opera. (ISBN: 9780345370754). Good.