Miss Dimple Suspects by Mignon F. Ballard, a Mysterious Review.

Review: Peggy Ashcroft, a student in Miss Dimple Kilpatrick's first grade class, goes hunting for her pet cat as darkness begins to fall. When she doesn't return, Miss Dimple joins the search for her. She finds Peggy atop a very steep and rugged hill under some brush. As she lifts Peggy to carry her home, she notices the child has a raging fever. It's too dark and treacherous to make her way back home, so Miss Dimple takes the girl to the nearest house, the home of aging artist Mae Martha. Mae's young companion Suzy, who was a student at Emory University's School of Medicine and has been taking care of Mae, agrees to take look after Peggy and see that she returns home safely. Several days later, Suzy calls Miss Dimple with tragic news: Mae Martha has been murdered. And Suzy believes that she will be accused of the crime in Miss Dimple Suspects, the third mystery in this historical series set in Georgia during the years of World War II by Mignon F. Ballard.

The evidence against Suzy is circumstantial, but that isn't her biggest problem: she is of Japanese descent, and fears that her heritage will be reason enough for the local community to believe her guilty. She's not wrong. Miss Dimple suspects, however, that the real motive may have had something to do with a number of paintings missing from the artist's home. Finding them will no doubt lead to the identity of the killer.

Miss Dimple makes for an engaging amateur sleuth, and the rural Georgia setting at a time of unrest in the country makes for an interesting backdrop to her investigation. The case also forces Miss Dimple's neighbors and friends to examine their own prejudices, something that is tricky to accomplish without seeming heavy-handed. Still, it is deftly handled here as is the murder mystery plot itself. Patterned in many ways like an English village-style mystery, this is a different sort of crime novel, but a good one nonetheless.

Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Miss Dimple Suspects.

Acknowledgment: Minotaur Books provided a copy of Miss Dimple Suspects for this review.

Miss Dimple Suspects

A Miss Dimple Kilpatrick Mystery by Mignon F. Ballard