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Asked to judge a deep frying contest in honor of the opening of Holcomb's Wholesome Fried Chicken in Hemlock Falls, NY, innkeeper and renowned chef Meg Quillam huffily declines -- even though the fee is $25,000. She all but shrieks at the town's mayor, the hapless Elmer Henry and Marge Schmidt, owner of the local diner and the richest woman in the county, "There's no taste to fat-fried food...it all tastes like Crisco! And who wants to eat Crisco?....Just look at what people fry and eat....Elvis Presley fried dill pickles." Rebuffed (as they knew they would be), the Special Fry Away Home task force enlists the already engaged celebrity chef Banion O'Haggerty as judge -- at the fee of $50,000. O'Haggerty, whom Meg loathes (and once slept with in New York) is not only coming to town, he is going to stay at Hemlock Inn. While O'Haggerty is supposed to be widely disliked, as Bishop develops the character, he emerges as a charming rogue. O'Haggerty is found dead, shortly after he and Andy (Meg's very long time fiancé) scuffle. Over the strong protestations of Myles (town sheriff and Quill's boyfriend), the two begin investigating. Meanwhile, both Holcomb and Charlie Kluckenpacker arrive in town with spouses in tow, with the two men constantly bickering about which has the best chicken recipe. Charlie is planning to opening Captain Cluck's Chicken Shack, and to that end he is planning to buy the land next to the Hemlock Inn and to erect his chicken shack with a huge neon bird atop it -- visible to everyone at the inn. In the series, the two sisters often reverse roles -- one keeping her feet planted on the ground, the other given to flights of fancy. In this case, Meg is the down-to-earth character, while Quill tries to psychoanalyze everyone in sight, given her newfound psychiatric knowledge based on her thrice weekly sessions with a shrink. Like Meg, the reader wants to shout, "Shut up!" After O'Haggerty's death, Meg agrees to judge the contest, although she advises everyone that "the fix in in" and she she will surely judge Marge's partner in the diner as winner with the best fried chicken. Before the sisters identify the culprit, there are two more murders. Bishop does an excellent job of creating a small community with all its infighting and petty disputes. Most vivid are Mayor Henry, who fancies himself a wheeler and dealer in the great world of finance but is really, as Marge says, "a damn fool." Marge is marvelous, always dressed in a baseball jacket and running her financial empire from a small room in back of her diner. In previous books, Bishop has included a cast of characters at the beginning. It would have been helpful here, since there are characters named Dina and Doreen, Meg and Marge, Henry and Harry.
Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Devine, August 2003
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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