Murder in Music City
Fictional gumshoe pursues clues all over Nashville
Nashville session singer turned private investigator Willi Taft can't get away from murder, even in her private life. In local writer Mary Saums' third mystery novel, When the Last Magnolia Weeps, Willi attends a charity concert and meets a priest from New Jersey who runs an organization called The Good Shepherd Center. At the after-concert party, genial Father Mike is found stabbed to death, and one of Willi's friends is the main suspect. Willi discovers some troubling complications: Father Mike's stories about his service in the Vietnam War don't quite add up. And the home where the priest was staying as a guest was broken into the night he was killed. Finally (and predictably) there is a hint of clerical abuse.
Not the most innovative premise for a thriller. But When the Last Magnolia Weeps is a cozy mystery, and as such the plot is secondary to the characters. Saums assembles a memorable cast here. Willi herself is a feisty Southerner with strong opinions on everything from ugly Confederate war hero statues (sound familiar?) to classical radio stations that don't play enough music. When she encounters some loathsome Music Row businessmen at the Cracker Barrel, she shows her disdain by throwing biscuits at them. Saums' minor characters, too, serve as timely reminders that there are still distinctive Southern traits: Douglas Anne Pennington reappears as the Southern matriarch who runs her societies and charities the way generals run armies.
As with any novel set in Nashville, it's fun for local readers to note the landmarks here: Willi eats breakfast at Wendell Smith's, attends a meeting of the Women's National Book Association at Davis-Kidd Booksellers, and goes on a dinner date at Blackstone Restaurant and Brewery; the climax of the novel occurs at The Parthenon. As Willi says when hearing Nashville mentioned on the radio: "It's only natural to be curious when a broadcaster mentions your own town. However, past experience with these yahoos has taught me not to trust them." Saums herself may reveal some Nashville eccentricities, but she can always be trusted to do so with love.
—Faye Jones
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