Killer Cousins: A Cealie Gunther Mystery

Cealie Gunther Mystery #2

by June Shaw

Cealie Gunther flies into Gatlinberg to help her semi-psychic cousin who insists she's in danger and needs Cealie's help. Trouble is, they never got along when they were young, and Cealie owns a copyediting agency, so she doesn't know how to protect anyone.
From the minute she trips over a body in her cousin's backyard, she needs to figure out how to protect her relative--unless her long lost cousin has become a killer.
Widowed Cealie has also been trying to avoid her hunky lover so she can rediscover herself, but he opens Cajun restaurants wherever she travels--and she is so bad at avoiding tempting dishes and men.
A restaurant's grand opening in town leads to more temptation and strife for Cealie, who must uncover a killer before more people, including her, die.

"Rollicking good fun!" -- Pulitzer-prize nominated author Ken Wells

"Killer Cousins is great! In the a la mode of Miss Marple and onward!" -- N.Y. Times best-selling author Heather Graham

"Killer Cousins is like a bowl of spicy gumbo, good till the last bite and leaves you wanting more" -- Author Barbara Colley

"Interesting characters and issues that all women can easily relate to" -- Armchair Interviews

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

June lives near lazy bayous of south Louisiana surrounded by her wonderful four children and their children, her squeeze Bob, and many friends. She writes the Cealie Gunther mystery series and other books.

Reviews

[Martha Cheves · Rating 5 out of 5]

Killer Cousins – Review by Martha A. Cheves, Author of Stir, Laugh, Repeat

I’d flown into Gatlinburg, reached my cousin’s house, shoved on the stuck gate of her backyard’s wooden fence, and fallen. “Stevie!” I cried, lying face down in tall grass. “Ste—vie!” Her screen door slammed. “Oh, Cealie, it’s you! You came!” She squatted beside me and I noticed my hand landed in dog doo-doo. I jerked my hand back. I wasn’t wearing my bifocals but could tell the poop was dry. Still – I swiped my fingers through the grass. “You didn’t answer the doorbell,” I said, checking my hand to make sure it was clean, “so I came back here. I tripped over something.” I moved my legs slowly to make sure my stinging knees weren’t broken. So many trees cluttered Stevie’s yard, I figured a thick branch had fallen, and it was the object my shins lay across. “I’ll help you move that thing out of the way.” I pointed back to it. Stevie didn’t speak. I glanced back to see what brought about this bizarre occurrence. She stooped near me but didn’t look at my face. Stevie stared at my feet… I took my time rising. Until I glanced toward where she stared. “It’s a man!” I yelled, scrambling to my feet. “Stevie, there’s a man in your grass.”

Cealie and Stevie are cousins and had grown up close, but in distance only. Their mothers were sisters but their grandmother seemed to favor Cealie over Stevie. This ended up giving Stevie a problem with jealousy, and she made Cealie cry whenever possible. So as Cealie prepared for her trip to Acapulco the call from Stevie begging her to come for a visit was a surprise. She insisted she “needed” her presence and that she, Stevie, was in danger. What caused Stevie to believe she was in danger? Her tarot cards, candles and crystals, of course.

Reading this book and hearing the feelings these two women had for each other brought back memories of some of my own cousins. There always seemed to be one that just stood out in the family as being special, causing others to feel jealous and left out. That’s what appeared to be the problem with the relationship between Stevie and Cealie in Killer Cousins. So, will the death of a member of Stevie’s stop smoking group change things for them? Will it make matters worse when another member of the group ends up dead in a restaurant owned by Cealie’s lover Gil? Or will it bring the two cousins closer together? Why would anyone kill two people who had only one thing in common, which was to quit smoking? And how did they kill them? There are no apparent signs of a struggle on either victim. I’ll give you a clue. I guessed the cause around page 115 for the 1st murder. As to the who the killer might be, there are 321 pages in Killer Cousins, I thought I had the answer on page 300 but I was wrong. The killer was a total surprise for me.

2009
321 pages
Gale Cengage
ISBN 978-1-59414-730-2

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This second episode finds Cealie Gunther, a semi-retired owner of a proofreading service, stopping on her way to Mexico to visit her cousin Stevie. She and Stevie did not get along as children, but when Stevie says she is in danger, Cealie feels she must help out. Walking across Stevie's yard, Cealie trips over a dead man. He was a member of Stevie's stop smoking group, although Stevie claims not to know him. And imagine Cealie's disgust when she learns that Stevie asked for her help because the crystals and Tarot cards say that she's in danger. Meanwhile, Cealie's boyfriend Gil Thurman is opening one of his Cajun restaurants in the area, which again forces Cealie to consider if she wants to keep their relationship going or whether she wants to make her own way in the world. Actually, what she clearly wants is to have it all--one of the reasons this gets only a three star rating; Cealie is an irritating narrator and character, who can't get beyond her hormonal urges.

[Kari Wainwright · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a Cealie Gunther Mystery. After reading it, I want to join Cealie and her sometime lover, Gil Thurman, in his restaurant Cajun Delights. Well, except maybe when one of the customers dies after tasting her entree!

[Deedeebee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book partly because it is set in the Smokie Mountains. It was a pretty good mystery and I enjoyed it.