Dixie Divas by Virginia Brown

Release date: 2009 / 308 pages

Synopsis (from front cover): Middle-aged and divorced, Trinket Truevine moves home to live with her aging parents in genteel and historic Cherry Hill, Mississippi. The Dixie Divas, a rowdy group of local belles, embrace her like a lost sister. Trinket soon finds herself and the Divas in the middle of a murder mystery surrounding the death of their pal Bitty’s ex-husband, a philandering senator.

First line: “If not for the long-dead Civil War Generals Ulysses S. Grant, Nathan Bedford Forrest, and a pot of chicken and dumplings, Bitty Hollandale would never have been charged with murder.”

Review:  Dixie Divas is a lot of fun – especially if you enjoy Southern fiction.  The characters are vivid and silly and memorable and Brown has a knack for bringing them to life through description and dialogue.

Here is how we are introduced to the protagonist:

My name is Eureka Truevine, but my family and friends all call me Trinket. Except for my ex-husband, who’s been known to call me a few other names. That’s one of the reasons I left him and came home to take care of my parents who are in their second adolescence, having missed out on their first one for reasons of survival.

And to her best-friend:

Bitty’s real name is Elisabeth, but it got shortened to Bitty when she was born and the name stuck. Anyone who calls her Elisabeth is a stranger or works for the government. Bitty is one of those females who attract men like state taxpayers’ money lures politicians. On her, a little extra weight settles in the form of voluptuous curves. About five-two in her Prada pumps, she has blond hair, china blue eyes, a complexion like a California girl, and a laugh that’d make even Scrooge smile. If she wasn’t my best friend, I’d probably be jealous.

I enjoyed spending a few hours with both of these women, especially Trinket, and would love to see both portrayed on the big screen.  Unfortunately, I really didn’t enjoy the plot.  I do not read a lot of murder mysteries in general and this one failed to keep my attention.  I would have rather just enjoyed hearing about how Trinket’s marriage had ended, or followed Bitty’s search for the perfect historical house to add to her Historical Society’s tour.  I also did not think the Divas were featured prominently enough to warrant the title, although I understand that Bitty and Trinket are Dixie Divas even before they join the group of women who call themselves that.

So, I do recommend the character development and good ol’ fashioned Southern humor of this novel, but did find the story tedious.  However, if you are in the mood for a few hours in Mississippi with two delightful divas, leave me a comment and I’ll send this along to one lucky winner.  The novel is in manuscript form, by the way…

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