Dire Happenings at Scratch Ankle - Hardcover

Sibley, Celestine

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060177039 ISBN 13: 9780060177034

Publisher: Harpercollins, 1993

Synopsis

Insatiably curious Atlanta news reporter Kate Mulcay has a wonderful time traveling with a delegation of Atlanta legislators to an annual gathering of cavers--until several of her traveling companions turn up dead

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

Another chapter in the adventurous life of young widow Kate Mulcay, reporter-sleuth for an Atlanta newspaper (Straight as an Arrow, etc.). Here, Kate is intrigued by charismatic young State Representative Return Pickett, a Native American who's pressing a Cherokee land claim on the Tennessee border. Kate drives to his hometown of Rising Fawn, with her neighbor's preteen daughters Sheena and Kim Sue Gandy in tow, to find out more about this cause. But Pickett fails to show for their appointment--and Kate discovers his mobile home empty and awash in blood. Local experts and visiting cave explorers mount a search of the Tricky Terrain for the missing man while Kate meets Addie Armentrout, deranged owner of the only vacant motel rooms in miles, whose actions drive her to accept the hospitality of Pickett's girlfriend Edie Putnam. Meanwhile, Representatives Motley Banks and Trent Goodman arrive to spur the search--and soon Banks has disappeared too. Before it's all over, the Gandy girls have been rescued from a rock fall; Kate has climbed down a well to rescue local bigwig Paw Paw Merritt; and there's been a second murder. Motivation and culprit are briskly disposed of in the last pages of this Nancy Drew meets Sheena, Jungle Queen episode-- frisky, amiable, and weightless. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

Picturesque place names like Scratch Ankle, Plum Nelly and Hog Jowl Road and the over-the-top personalities of many in the cast don't make up for Sibley's slim plot. In her third outing, after Straight as an Arrow , Atlanta reporter and amateur sleuth Kate Mulcay is invited to the town of Rising Fawn on the Georgia-Tennessee border. Georgia state legislator "Return" Pickett, a Cherokee, wants her to write about his campaign to reclaim Tennessee land stolen from his tribe. Kate is accompanied by two young backwoods chatterboxes of her acquaintance, Sheena and Kim Sue Gandy, who have joined her for the weekend because "Mommer's got to go hep midwife our aint." The three drive to Pickett's trailer only to find him missing and the walls drenched in blood. A beating, a kidnapping and a murder occur while they search for the missing man as Kate also uncovers a massive property scam. Grating dialect and plot twists that are either obvious or incredible pretty much sink this story.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harpercollins
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0060177039
• ISBN 13: 9780060177034
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 176