Welcome to Tullahoma, a town of about 15,000 in north central Mississippi. Mostly it’s a pretty peaceful town, just the occasional drunk-and-disorderly, a robbery or a burglary here or there, and the domestic abuse cases that never seem to go away.

Lately, however, the murder rate has been on the rise. It all started with the strange death of Bobby Ray Culpepper, who was found in the woods behind the Kozy Kove Trailer Park with a lawn flamingo stuck in his neck. (And if you don’t believe those spiky metal legs on a lawn flamingo can be deadly, well, Bobby Ray is proof they sure are!)

The chief suspect in the murder was Bobby Ray’s ex-wife, Wanda Nell. She’s a hard-working gal who holds down two jobs, trying her best to take care of her family. (Bobby Ray never was much on paying child support, you see.) She had a big argument with Bobby Ray the night before he was murdered, and now the sheriff’s department thinks she killed him.

Wanda Nell was innocent, though, and in order to clear her name, she decided she’d darn well better find the killer herself. With the help of her best friend Mayrene Lancaster (and Mayrene’s shotgun, Ol’ Reliable), she did just that, in Flamingo Fatale.

Since then, other murders have been happening on a regular basis in Tullahoma, and somehow Wanda Nell gets involved in them. With her work schedule she doesn’t have much time to play detective, but it turns out she’s pretty good at it.

So you’re welcome to stay awhile in Tullahoma and see just how Wanda Nell does it...

Wanda Nell Culpepper is a steel magnolia to cherish.
~ Carolyn Hart