Blurb:
When
small town girl Bonita Faye's abusive husband, car salesman, and fishing guide
Billy Roy is killed, she begins an adventurous new life that takes her from
Poteau, Oklahoma to Paris and back again in a story of murder and
redemption...and more murder...stretching over three decades.
About the Author:
Margaret
Moseley was born in Oklahoma, reared in Texas and lived twenty years in
Arkansas. Her resulting combined regional accent gives the reader of her best
selling book and Edgar finalist Bonita
Faye a unique flavor to her protagonist Bonita Faye's trials and tribulations.
While the reader knows from the "get-go" that Bonita Faye killed
Billy Roy up there on Cavanal Hill, it's a toss-up as to how she will spend the
next forty years. Told in the first person, readers will laugh and gasp as
Bonita Faye deliberately weaves and molds her future with the book's climax
having her face another murderous decision!
Moseley
writes very different mysteries, but whether her books involve a witness to a
murder—Milicent LeSueur—or follow the
sleuthing of Texas bookseller Honey Huckleberry—The Fourth Steven; Grinning In His Mashed Potatoes; A Little Traveling
Music, Please—her writing is creative, whimsical and entertaining. Moseley
currently lives in Texas with her writer/computer programmer husband Ron Burris
and their two indescribable rescued Beagles, Matilda and Sadie.
Review by Rochelle:
I have
never met such a lovable murderer. Bonita Faye is frying chicken perfectly when
Deputy Sheriff Harmon Adams comes to the door to tell her that her husband’s
been shot. He stays for lunch and is still there when the church ladies
descend. I’m afraid I startled my neighbor when I got to this part, because I
laugh out loud and I’d been reading so quietly by the elevator while I waited
for my laundry, she hadn’t noticed me until I guffawed. But really, I just had
to laugh.
“They
just start coming to the house of death just as sure as if there were a steeple
over it with a bell tolling a message, ‘Someone’s dead. Come one, come all.
There’s food to be had and kitchens to clean. …
“Years
later…my best friend Patsy and I made a pact. Whoever died first, the survivor
would come and clean out the crumbs from the silverware drawer before the
church ladies got there.”
Bonita Faye is one of those books that should come
with a warning: “Choking Hazard! Do not eat or drink while reading this book.”
And
that’s not even the coolest thing about Bonita
Faye. It’s a masterpiece of language. Told in first person, the beginning
of the book was a grammatical mess that kind of drove the editor in me nuts.
The narrative was full of “ain’ts” and double negatives. “I ain’t never seen…”
Grrr… But Bonita Faye is a high school drop-out living in Oklahoma in the late
forties/early fifties. How could she possibly speak any other way? Eventually,
she receives an education, and the quality of the narrative grows as Bonita
Faye gains sophistication. The “ain’ts” and double negatives disappear.
I
couldn’t put down Bonita Faye. She
was warm, witty, and loveable, despite being a murderer. But it was “just a
little murder.” And she planned to be sure whoever died first—her or her best
friend Patsy—the silverware drawer would be clean.
Heat Rating: G
Length: 240 Pages
Prices:
Print:
Hardcover:
$20.00
Paperback:
$11.99
Digital:
$2.99
