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Summary
Summary
The women of a small townÂs bird watching society secretly plan to Âeliminate the husband of one of their members in this new novelÂa modern spin on the classic film Arsenicand Old LaceÂwritten by the beloved author of Sophie and the Rising Sun.In a story replete with coconut cake, grits, and poisoned turtle stew, itÂs easy to see why Augusta Trobaugh has been heralded as having Âa voice from and for the South, as complex and resonant as the region itselfÂ(Anne Rivers Siddons). With her latest novel, Trobaugh displays that distinctly Southern charm and beckons new readers to her work.Founding members of the Tea-Olive Bird Watching Society in tiny Tea-Olive, Georgia, are Beulah, Sweet, Wildwood, and Zion, each named after a hymn. Pillars of the community, seemingly beyond reproach, two of these ladies are nonetheless conspiring to murder retired Judge L. Hyson Breed, a newcomer to Tea-Olive. It all begins when the judge tricks Sweet into marriage, steals her land for a development project, and sweet- talks his way right onto the town council. By the time Beulah and Zion discover his evil plansÂand realize that Sweet has endured personal harm, with more to comeÂthe judge is already a permanent fixture in town. Or is he? When Beulah and Zion attempt to do away with the judgeÂwhile always remaining unfailingly politeÂthe novel takes a wild turn. The result is a delightful black comedy from a novelist at the peak of her powers.
Author Notes
August Trobaugh lives in Georgia.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Treading the familiar ground of women's friendship in the South, Trobaugh's sixth novel (after The River Jordan) exalts the bonds among Beulah, Zion, Wildwood and Sweet, four Tea-Olive, Ga., churchgoing ladies (all named after hymns) and founding members of the titular society. Trobaugh chronicles how Beulah and Zion come to plot the murder of Judge Hyson Breed, a New Yorker who retires to their quiet town, seduces Sweet into marriage and then bullies her into giving up not only her ancestral land but also her lifelong friends. He ingratiates himself with the merchants of Tea-Olive and insinuates himself into the town leadership for his own nefarious purposes. Readers who like their villains irredeemably evil and their heroines glowing "with that special shine of women who do good for the community and who love the Lord with all their hearts" may forgive the predictability of the plot and enjoy the well-meaning characters forced by dire circumstances to draw on all of their resourcefulness to protect their friends, their town and their cherished values-while remaining unfailingly polite. Less forgiving readers may be unamused by Beulah and Zion's attempts at vigilante justice against their cardboard nemesis. Agent, Harvey Klinger. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
A group of darling elderly Southern ladies with fanciful names prove their mettle in Trobaugh's precious, endearingly soap-and-bath-powder latest (after Swan Place, 2002, etc.). On the death of one of its members, Love-Divine Brockett King, the Tea-Olive Bird Watching Society inherits the 13 acres of wooded land next to her farmhouse, handy when the group needs to spy on the new resident there, a widower judge from New York. The five ladies of the society, all but one native to Tea-Olive, Ga., and named after lyrics in the Baptist Hymnal (Beulah, Sweet, Wildwood and Zion--Memphis being the exception), "behaved appropriately at all times," except when one of the group, the renegade unmarried Sweet, lets herself be secretly wooed by the mysterious judge. Nuptials follow a little too hastily, and Sweet finally gets the man of her dreams, settling into Love-Divine's old farmhouse--until the judge's autocratic temper begins to assert itself. After a bit of snooping, which the society ladies excel at because they know everyone in town, they learn that the judge's two previous wives died suspiciously. He now gets himself invited to join the city council, makes noises about dissolving the town's library and stops allowing Sweet to see her old friends. "I spend every minute of my life trying to avoid making him angry," says she pathetically. When Sweet is spotted with a bruised eye, the ladies take action and plot ways of murdering the hateful old judge, first by poisoning his turtle stew (they have to get a large turtle and try to kill it first), then by letting the judge's bull out of its pen to trample him. Though couched in a saccharine irony, the story is a grim tale of elderly female powerlessness turned upside-down, and Sweet's bruises and subjugation by the evil, controlling widower are no laughing matter. Trobaugh knows her audience, and she fine-tunes her sweet-tempered ladies-of-steel in sharp, witty characterizations. Uncomplicated Southern farce that works with bubbling bravado. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
The sleepy North Georgia town of Tea-Olive gets a lovely windfall when one of its recently deceased citizens leaves her estate to the town library except for a portion of woods that she bequeaths to the remaining ladies in her circle of bird-watchers. Then a newly arrived judge, a Yankee no less, comes to town and buys the estate's house. Freely spending, he weaves a charming spell on the townsfolk. His web enmeshes one of the naive bird-watching ladies, and she runs off and marries him. The newcomer gets himself onto the town's library board, and it quickly becomes evident that his interest is not benignly bibliophilic. The balance of the bird-watching ladies leap to the defense of their sister, whom it appears the judge has trapped in an abusive marriage. These aging, genteel southern belles soon find themselves plotting the ultimate vengeance. Trobaugh's prose flows easily, and the humor in her portrait of southern life is exceeded solely by her obvious affection for the delightful characters that people this tale. --Mark Knoblauch Copyright 2005 Booklist
Library Journal Review
In Tea-Olive, GA, the ladies are named after hymns and politeness is a way of life. Beulah, Zion, Wildwood, Memphis, and Sweet have been best friends, members of the bird-watching society, and pillars of the community for years. When a retired judge from New York moves to town and enchants everyone, especially Sweet, only Beulah and Zion suspect that things may not be as they seem. When neither the law nor the church will help and all resources are exhausted, these resourceful women take matters into their own hands. Luckily, they know the proper social response to any situation-what casserole to bring after a wedding, what pie to bring to a funeral, and what kind of soup works best to poison your best friend's husband. In one sentence, Trobaugh (Sophie and the Rising Sun) transforms what appears to be a cozy Southern novel into a darkly humorous tale of women who take care of their own. After all, they have done what needed to be done their entire lives. And in this wonderful novel, they must do it again. Recommended for all libraries.-Wendy Bethel, Southwest Public Libs., Columbus, OH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.