Rate this book

Mama Rides Shotgun (2009)

by Deborah Sharp(Favorite Author)

3.85 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0738713309 (ISBN13: 9780738713304)

languge

English

genre

Humor

publisher

Midnight Ink

series

A Mace Bauer Mystery

review 1: "Momma Rides Shotgun" is the second in Deborah Sharp's humorous series that began with "Momma Does Time". Many of the same characters return again including Mace's sisters, Momma,Sal (now engaged to Momma). The setting is the historical Cracker Trail ride from east to west Florida. This time Momma is determined to help poor single Mace acquire a beau, no matter how many dead bodies they find. Mace is a very determined sleuth. Ms. Sharp keeps you laughing and guessing.
review 2: #2 Mace Bauer mystery, set in central Florida. Mace and her Mama are trying to do a little bonding by camping and riding the 120-mile Cracker Trail--the week-long ride and educational trek celebrating the ways of the old-time Florida cattlemen. On the first day of the ride, Lawton Brambl... moree, one of the ranchers who was allowing them to camp on his land and providing vats of his famous Cow Hunter Chili, dies. His much-younger wife comes upon him as he was presumably stirring up his chili and had a heart attack. (He was well-known to have a bad heart.) But Mace is suspicious--especially when she notices Lawton's gun which appeared to have dropped out of his hand when he died. Why would he have it so close to hand? But old Doc, who treated Lawton, declares it a heart attack and that's that--until Lawton's kids start pointing fingers at their new stepmother and making noises that his death wasn't natural. Lawton, being a rich cattleman, has plenty of enemies. Mace's questioning Doc's diagnosis gets around of course and causes the expected attacks and attempted attacks on her person, but she's persistent (like many amateur sleuths, almost stupidly so) and eventually she solves the (very predictable) case. In between, there was a lot of romancey hogwash--Mace's love interest from the last book who had moved back to Miami some time ago "just happens" to be on trail as well, and of course there's Lawton's son Trey, who was a big high school football star at Mace's high school, whom she ends up smooching with as well. It was just...silly. Lots of eye rolling on my part. Mace is supposedly thirty-something years old, but she sure didn't act like she was much out of her teens. The first book was kind of cute despite all the Southern talk and Mace's annoying, nosy, preachy, interfering Mama. This time it was just over the top. I actually liked Mace in the first book, but she seemed almost like a different person in this book. I skimmed the last hundred pages or so, but I won't be continuing on with the series. The dialogue, as with the first in series, doesn't sound very natural and the plot was scattered all over the place with just too many unbelievable coincidences needed to make it come together. less

Download links for: Mama Rides Shotgun

Advertising