Kate Banning is a former freelance investigative reporter who has moved, along with her 13 year-old daughter, Kelly, from Boston to Nashville to take a steady job writing and editing articles for trade magazines. A piece on automotive safety leads her to Bobbie Burnside, whose sister Brandi was an up-and-coming country music star killed in a recent automobile accident. But Bobbie has her own agenda. She doesn't want to talk about how Brandi could have been saved if she had used a seatbelt. She wants Kate to investigate Brandi's death as a potential homicide.

At first, Kate humors Bobbie, hoping to convince her that she is either living in denial or unnecessarily paranoid. But when the two women are almost run off the road by a shadowy figure in a beige fan, Kate starts to take Bobbie's theories a little more seriously. Meanwhile, Kate is coping with Kelly's difficult adjustment to their new environment, learning the ropes of her new job, and trying to maintain a long-distance relationship with a handsome pilot. So investigating a murder is not part of her game plan. But she finds herself unable to say no to Bobbie.

Cecilia Tishy is dead-on with her culture clash between Boston-bred Kate and Tennessee. Nashville may be the center of country music, but at first the only country song Kate appreciates is Reba McEntire's "Whoever's In New England."

Kate's investigation of the murder is done in an intelligent, thoughtful manner. Unlike several cozy mysteries I've suffered through lately, Kate doesn't just approach each suspect and ask them directly about the possible crime. She thinks, she theorizes, she snoops, and then she confronts. The climactic scene in which she faces the murderer is downright creepy, with a page-turning ending.

Unfortunately, the rest of the novel doesn't read as smoothly. The narrative has a strangely stilted style at times, replete with first-person stream of consciousness sentence fragments. An example:

A dead young singer-songwriter on your mind. And the family scared off. And Kate run off? Thanks for your efforts, but you can go home now...The spunky Bobbie with no more stomach for the pursuit of her sister's killer. Kate Banning could close the file.

But should she? Could she? Bobbie thought she could placate the killer. Back off, back out. Make nice. Smile sweetly and keep her mouth shut, and the deadly boogie man would show a civil restraint. Add [Bobbie's mother's] mix from Biblical scripture, and the Burnside household could seal itself in a bubble of magical thinking. Hocus pocus with the Lord's blessing.

These musings can be entertaining, as when Kate, editing another writer's article, reflects on the ironic trend of transforming nouns into verbs "in a culture that sits around all day in meetings." But they're not tight enough to fit the mystery style, and as a result I found it too easy to put the novel down in the middle of a chapter.

The next Kate Banning mystery, Cryin' Time, is already in the works. I'd like to see more of this new sleuth, but I'd prefer to experience more action and dialogue, and less awkward narrative.

--Susan Scribner