Crying in the Chapel: A Swinging Sixties Mystery
Days before her wedding, Dot Morgan is finalizing details with the wedding coordinator, pastor, soloist and organist at Camden, Texas, Chapel. It’s not long before she’s testing her sleuthing skills when the chapel caretaker is found dead at the base of the belfry followed soon after by the suspicious death of the wedding coordinator herself.
It’s not the first time for “Detective Dot.” Crying in the Chapel is the fifth in the Swinging Sixties cozy mystery series set in the early part of the decade.
True to the cozy mystery genre, it’s set in a small town, features an enterprising and likable amateur investigator, and highlights relationships with friends and family. The unraveling of the mystery falls short, however. Clues do not move step by step to a reveal moment. A clue found at the scene of the crime is not explained. The perpetrator’s motivations test logic.
With only passing references to popular culture of the Sixties, there is little feel for the days of Elvis Presley and early rock and roll. Crying in the Chapel does not carry a beat this reader can dance to.
