Just finished this novel. I liked it. It's not necessarily the sort of thing I would be most interested in reading given my own inclinations (I read it for a book group), but I think it's very well done. It's a historical mystery.
The year is 1943, and Miss Dimple is a middle-aged (oh, well, perhaps a little bit past) first-grade teacher in a small town in Alabama. She has taught first-grade, and lived in Phoebe Chadwick's boarding house, for decades.
The children are given time off of school to pick cotton because so many of the men who worked as farm laborers are in the military. Miss Dimple and the other teachers go along to supervise. At the end of the day, a horrible event occurs. As a teacher goes to a creekside to retrive some wandering children, she glimpses a skelton which has been exposed by receding flood waters.
Miss Dimple is haunted by a feeling that things are not quite right. And many folks in this close-knit town are in some kind of distress: Buddy Oglesby is trying to recover from another job loss and find his place in the world; Charlie Carr, her sister Delia, and her best friend Annie are all troubled by their beaus' absence as they serve in the military; Phoebe Chadwick seems to be being blackmailed; and there's something "not quite right" about the new football coach.
All is revealed, but not before a bond rally and local pageant is held, and not before at least one lovelorn lass gets engaged, and not before there is a second death and a shooting. And not before a whole lot of visiting and going to dinner at each other's houses, and much baking and gifting of said baking.
That's a lot of action for one little town.
Although Miss Dimple is probably not familiar with the term, she is a feminist. Although has no children of her own, she loves her students. She is a member of a close community, knows everyone, and participates in all the community's events.
Some of the strains of small town life are present and some are absent.
But the portrait of a community's response to the war effort, the home front, from collecting grease to ration stamps and margarine and going without butter, all feel pretty accurate.
This book is part of a series. The first title is Miss Dimple Disappears, the second is Miss Dimple Rallies to the Cause, the third is Miss Dimple Suspects, and the last is Miss Dimple Picks a Peck of Trouble.
The year is 1943, and Miss Dimple is a middle-aged (oh, well, perhaps a little bit past) first-grade teacher in a small town in Alabama. She has taught first-grade, and lived in Phoebe Chadwick's boarding house, for decades.
The children are given time off of school to pick cotton because so many of the men who worked as farm laborers are in the military. Miss Dimple and the other teachers go along to supervise. At the end of the day, a horrible event occurs. As a teacher goes to a creekside to retrive some wandering children, she glimpses a skelton which has been exposed by receding flood waters.
Miss Dimple is haunted by a feeling that things are not quite right. And many folks in this close-knit town are in some kind of distress: Buddy Oglesby is trying to recover from another job loss and find his place in the world; Charlie Carr, her sister Delia, and her best friend Annie are all troubled by their beaus' absence as they serve in the military; Phoebe Chadwick seems to be being blackmailed; and there's something "not quite right" about the new football coach.
All is revealed, but not before a bond rally and local pageant is held, and not before at least one lovelorn lass gets engaged, and not before there is a second death and a shooting. And not before a whole lot of visiting and going to dinner at each other's houses, and much baking and gifting of said baking.
That's a lot of action for one little town.
Although Miss Dimple is probably not familiar with the term, she is a feminist. Although has no children of her own, she loves her students. She is a member of a close community, knows everyone, and participates in all the community's events.
Some of the strains of small town life are present and some are absent.
But the portrait of a community's response to the war effort, the home front, from collecting grease to ration stamps and margarine and going without butter, all feel pretty accurate.
"Dimple Kilpatrick seldom worried. It did no good to dwell on conditions one could not change, but if there was something she could do to improve a situation, she believed in doing what her father had referred to as "stepping up to the plate."
When the other teachers left for school af ter the midday meal that day, Miss Dimle gathered up her leather handbag decorated with colorful yarn flowers, along with her umbrella, just in case she spied litter along the way, and left them in Phoebe's front parlor. According to the porcelain clock on the mantel, she had more than enough time to get back to school before the first bell rang.
And then she made her way down the long hallway, knocked on Phoebe Chadwick's bedroom door, and "stepped up to the plate."
This book is part of a series. The first title is Miss Dimple Disappears, the second is Miss Dimple Rallies to the Cause, the third is Miss Dimple Suspects, and the last is Miss Dimple Picks a Peck of Trouble.
