April McNabb, a quasi-friend of Julia’s, is in a tough situation -- she is in an interracial marriage, her baby has died, and the church where her father is minister is threatening to picket the church where she wants to bury her stillborn son.

Julia met April in the town jail when Julia was a murder suspect, but that’s another story (So Dear to Wicked Men). Julia supports April by going to the funeral and, thus, witnesses her threatening the man responsible for the picketing, Walter Fry, a respected deacon at the Mount Sinai Tabernacle Church. When April brandishes a gun, Fry runs and all hell breaks loose.

Later, when Fry is found shot to death, April is the prime suspect. April’s husband Davon is found beaten almost to death by two “good old boys” at the graveyard. Julia decides to prove April innocent by finding the real killer. But situations crop up along the way, almost deterring Julia, and then Nick, from this goal. .

The cast of characters is very complex. There is April’s family, who are almost as bigoted as Walter Fry, and Davon’s family, who are not all that keen on April. Davon’s sister has secrets of her own. Are they enough to kill for? Walter Fry had many hidden aspects of his character -- or lack thereof -- that could have caused his death. What about his wife, Bitsy? Was she really the meek, timid helpmate who knew nothing about Walter’s secrets?

Other characters include the young black woman that Walter left a half interest in the local honkytonk; the other half-owner in the honkytonk who had a real gambling problem; the lawyer who had made good and had a real interest in April’s case; Spiros, the cook in Nick and Julia’s restaurant; and the two evil hired hands who love to beat up whoever got in their way.

Somewhere in the middle of the story, the plot slowed down and got a little stagnant. By the second half, this reviewer had picked the murderer only because that person seemed like the least likely. Guess who was the murderer? That’s right -- the least likely person. Oh, the clues were there, but it was still a little flimsy. Other characters seemed much more likely to react in that way. This was a good enough mystery yarn -- it just needed a little more action in the middle and a more likely ending.

--Kay Black