Biggie and the Devil Diet – Nancy Bell

© 2002 St. Martins Minotaur, New York

I first started reading Nancy Bell’s stories about Biggie when they first appeared some sixteen years ago. What appealed to me then was that the author was another Texas native telling mysteries set in Texas, and not just Texas—a fictional setting not so far from my own old stomping grounds. I liked the stories well enough to sit through the first four episodes (I missed number 5, and have just found number 6 to shuffle through).

The stories are told from the point of view of Biggie’s grandson JR Weatherford, who has finally turned thirteen by the time our present story takes place. In the midst of JR learning to deal with all these new feelings that he doesn’t understand (including a weird feeling around a pretty new girl and a newfound need to be disrespectful to Biggie), he discovers that his actual grandfather was not the man Biggie had been married to all those years, but an earlier love who became a wealthy race car driver and entrepreneur.

Just about the time JR gets to know Rex, the grandfather is shot, but not before changing his will to include the young Weatherford. Mixed in are all the lovable and nosy characters from previous Biggie stories, and we are treated to one of Willie Mae’s recipes (Willie Mae and Rosebud live in the “servants’ quarters” type house behind Biggie and JR, and Willie Mae cooks and cleans for Biggie) at the end of the story.

This story includes a ranch converted into a “fat” farm for young girls, a tornado that does significant damage to Job’s Crossing, and a dilemma brought on when JR forgets that he’s asked his long-time best friend Monica to the dance and asks Misty (the pretty newcomer) as well.

The story moves relatively quickly as with all the Biggie stories. The biggest drawback when you visit Job’s Crossing is the dialect. In attempting to give color and character to the inhabitants of our little east Texas village, Bell often overdoes it. Even so, I’d be glad to recommend this to any and all cozy mystery connoisseurs with a four reading glasses rating.

—Benjamin Potter, August 11, 2012

Death Splits a Hair – Nancy Bell

©2006 Worldwide, New York (Originally published © 2005 St. Martin’s Press, New York)

I first started reading Nancy Bell’s mystery stories since the first “Biggie” tale hit the streets. What fascinated me at the time was that the stories were authentically set in East Texas. Since that’s where I was born and where I have a johnboat-full of memories. I’ve been away from Bell’s writing for awhile, but found a paperback copy of the second Judge Jackson Crain novels at a book fair.

Crain’s high school buddy and the town barber Joe Junior McBride winds up dead on his couch. All the evidence points to his son Three (that’s Joe the Third to the unTexan of us), and Three is making himself scarce. To add insult to injury, Joe Junior’s widow (Three’s step-mother) in the midst of her shock-induced breakdown, must now face the disappearance of her own daughter (best friend of Jackson’s 14-year-old daughter) and then her brother-in-law (Junior’s adoptive brother) band director Gerald gets stabbed in the back.

Along with the mystery of multiple family murders, the small-town atmosphere makes this a winner of a read. You’ll be introduced to a variety of East Texas traditions (including Lutie Faye’s (that’s Jackson’s house keeper and cook) succulent cuisine and a Foam Party. Bell keeps things lively with the on-again, off-again romance between the judge and newcomer to Post Oak Mandy d’Alejandro and the coarse but nosy language of Crain’s receptionist Edna.

I liked this little trip to Post Oak, Texas, and think that you will too. I give it four out of five reading glasses.

—Benjamin Potter, March 30, 2012