I Can't Make You Love Me, but I Can Make You Leave
The Domestic Equalizers Series
Dixie Cash

William Morrow
April 5, 2011 / ISBN 978-0061910142
Contemporary mystery
Amazon

Reviewed by Linda Morelli

Darla Denman, an aging Nashville “Queen of Country Music” star is on a comeback tour with an entourage that includes Big Bob, her ex-husband, with whom she has made amends. Big Bob is still her manager, and his new wife, Roxie Jo, provides the opening act for Darla’s show. Their bus has mechanical problems when they near Salt Lick, Texas on the way to their next show in Midland. When Bob learns that the cost to repair the bus leaves them broke, and his wife Roxie sends the two backup singers packing, Darla will have nothing stand in the way of her comeback. She heads for the beauty parlor and meets Debbie Sue Overstreet and Edwina “Ed” Perkins-Martin, two hairdressers who, as the Domestic Equalizers, are private eyes. Darla learns that they are loyal fans and can sing, and asks them to be her new backup.

Debbie Sue and Ed agree, little expecting that, after their arrival in Midland, their detective skills will be called into action when Roxie Jo is found dead in her dressing room, stabbed with a nail file. When Darla confesses to the crime, Debbie Sue and Ed are firmly convinced their favorite country western singer didn’t kill her ex-husband’s wife. But who did? And why did Darla confess?

Dixie Cash has an innate ability to provide solid mysteries with a good dose of laughter in wacky plots that provides thoroughly enjoyable reading. Debbie Sue and Edwina are wild and nutty characters who provide constant laughs and find themselves in zany situations. They’re down to earth honest folks who are more true to life than most fictional characters. Dixie Cash (sisters Pam Crumbie and Jeffery McClanahan) have provided yet another delightful and engaging summer read. I’m hooked and am certain that this novel is her best in the series thus far.