By book four, you either love Patricia Anne and Mary Alice or you’ve already packed up your beach chair and gone home. But for those of us still sunburned and smirking beside them, Murder Makes Waves is a reminder that even murder is no match for a determined Southern woman in linen slacks and orthopedic sandals.
The setup is simple: the sisters head to Mary Alice’s condo in Destin for a week of relaxation, joined by Patricia Anne’s daughter Haley and their friend Frances. But before they’ve even settled into their beach chairs, a body turns up in the surf. One of Mary Alice’s new friends, of course. Vacation quickly becomes investigation.
The plot hinges on murky real estate dealings and a conservation subplot about sea turtle habitats. It might sound flimsy in another series, but here it works. Anne George has a knack for embedding her murders in the rhythms of ordinary life. Condo politics, writing workshops, flirtations with suspicious men. These mysteries feel less like puzzles and more like tangled family stories with a body count.
But the real heart of the book, as always, is the relationship between the sisters. Mary Alice, larger than life in every possible way, never met a boundary she couldn’t bulldoze with a friendly smile. Patricia Anne, all dry wit and secondhand mortification, clings to manners like a life raft. Their bickering is affectionate, their differences pronounced, and their loyalty absolute. George doesn’t romanticize aging, but she respects it. These women are in their sixties, tired of nonsense, and entirely themselves.
There are a few moments that falter. The ending ties up a little too neatly, and Haley’s subplot doesn’t land with much emotional weight. But these are minor blemishes on an otherwise satisfying entry. The humor is sharp, the pacing brisk, and the voice unmistakably Anne George’s: warm, wry, and just a little wicked.
Murder Makes Waves doesn’t reinvent the series, and it doesn’t need to. It leans into what works. Sun, scandal, and sisters who solve crimes not because they’re nosy (though they are), but because they can’t not care. Cozy, yes, but with teeth. Four stars.
Whodunity Award: Best Use of Sea Turtle Conservation as a Front for Real Estate Murder
Because if your beach vacation doesn’t include developer fraud and environmental sabotage, is it really a mystery?