Sniffing Out Murder by Kallie E. Benjamin

 

First Line: I walked through the park reciting the lines out loud, letting the words marinate in my mind.

 

The success of her first book for middle-grade readers, The Adventures of Bailey the Bloodhound, encouraged elementary school teacher Priscilla Cummings to quit, move back to Crosbyville, Indiana, and take up the writer's life with her bloodhound, Bailey. 

Pris soon finds out that former high school mean girl and newly elected school board trustee, Whitney Kelley, is on a campaign to eliminate frivolous spending-- and by "frivolous" she means anything to do with the arts and social programs, including Pris and Bailey's pet-assisted reading program.

As a result, Pris and Whitney have a rather public argument, and when Bailey finds Whitney's body in a flowerbed, Pris finds herself Suspect #1.

~

I was in the mood for a canine-themed light and fun mystery, so I picked up Sniffing Out Murder by Kallie E. Benjamin (AKA V.M. Burns) with mixed results.

 

I did enjoy the small town setting and the cast of characters, like Pris's Aunt Agatha who owns the Blue Plate Special Café, and the police chief's eight-year-old daughter, Hannah. Her background as an elementary school teacher means that Pris has many tools in her arsenal when dealing with children and-- more importantly-- with difficult adults (excluding Whitney). The relationship she forms with Hannah is exceptional.

 

I also liked how Bailey's reaction to one of the characters was a dead giveaway, but his reaction did not solve the entire mystery.

 

Then there were the things that didn't sit well with me. Like the fact that Pris was under a critical deadline yet did not write one single word of her next book. Or the fact that she kept sticking her nose in various people's business, getting harsh reactions, yet was so absolutely clueless that she didn't realize she was putting her own life in danger. Or the fact that Bailey the bloodhound really didn't figure in the book much.

 

However, the major thing that I didn't care for was the overwhelming aroma of romance throughout the entire book. Pris had just had the very traumatic experience of finding a dead body, but the split second she spies Police Chief Gilbert Morgan, she longs for a comb and a makeup touchup. (If you just pictured my eyes rolling back in my head, you hit the bull's-eye.) Yep, there were just too many curling toes and quivering livers in Sniffing Out Murder that kept me from truly enjoying the book, but it is a light, fun, and fast read-- perfect for the summer.

Sniffing Out Murder by Kallie E. Benjamin

ISBN: 9780593547359

Berkley Prime Crime © 2023

Paperback, 352 pages

 

Cozy Mystery, #1 Bailey the Bloodhound mystery

Rating: C+

Source: Purchased from The Poisoned Pen Bookstore.

A Fever in the Heartland by Timothy Egan

 

First Line: The most powerful man in Indiana stood next to the new governor at the Inaugural Ball, there to be thanked, applauded, and blessed for using the nation's oldest domestic terror group to gain control of a uniquely American state.

 

When most of us think of the Roaring Twenties-- the Jazz Age-- we think of flappers and frivolity, but it was also the height of the Ku Klux Klan, a uniquely American hate group. Their membership didn't just reside in the South, they were also strong in the Midwest and West. This group took radical steps to keep Blacks, Jews, Catholics, and immigrants "in their place", and one man spearheaded the group's attempt to take over America.

 

D.C. Stephenson was a charismatic charlatan; he knew just what people wanted to hear and was happy to reinforce their fears. Within two years of his arrival in Indiana, he became the Grand Dragon of the state and the architect of the strategy that brought the group out of the shadows. Their message was spread from church pulpits, family picnics, and town celebrations. Judges, prosecutors, ministers, governors, and senators across the country proudly proclaimed their membership. 

 

But at the height of Stephenson's power, just at the moment he was going to be groomed for President of the United States, it was a seemingly powerless woman-- Madge Oberholtzer-- who would reveal the true D.C. Stephenson and bring the Ku Klux Klan to its knees.

 

~

 

When I came across a photocopied news article from the 1920s in my deceased mother's papers telling of a meeting of the Ku Klux Klan chapter in my own little (population 1700) hometown in central Illinois, my jaw dropped in total shock (just as I imagine my mother's did). I had no idea that the KKK had ever been anywhere near my hometown. When I discovered that one of my favorite authors, Timothy Egan, had written a book about the KKK in the 1920s, I knew I had to read it. To call A Fever in the Heartland eye-opening, compelling, and disturbing is the mere tip of the iceberg when describing the book's effect on me.

 

To learn of the presidents who either condoned or turned a blind eye to this hate group's actions was enlightening. To learn that the KKK had a group for everyone (the KKK for males, the KKK Women's Auxiliary, Ku Klux Kiddies, and Klan Klubs for high school students). To learn that there was a KKK chapter aboard a U.S. battleship and that there was Klan Day at the Indiana State Fair... all this was sobering. The Klan used Indiana's Horse Thief Brigades as its own morality police, and it had its own "poison squads" disseminating fake news. To learn how Indiana became the most saturated Klan state that passed the world's first eugenic sterilization law (which was later picked up by an additional thirty states) was chilling. 

 

The Klan in Indiana had tentacles everywhere, from the governor's mansion to the smallest town, and the Grand Dragon of them all, D.C. Stephenson, was responsible for the huge upsurge in membership across the country. The man was a con man of the highest caliber-- and a violent sexual predator. After each scene in which Stephenson took center stage, I wanted to take a hot shower to wash him off. Repulsive isn't a strong enough word to describe this person. After all that Madge Oberholtzer suffered, it was wonderful to see that she, and she alone, was strong enough to take down this monster.

 

However, after finishing A Fever in the Heartland, I came away with a feeling of dread.

 

"Isn't it strange that with all our educational advantages," noted the Hoosier writer Meredith Nicholson, "so many Indiana citizens could be induced to pay $10 [the KKK membership fee] for the privilege of hating their neighbors and wearing a sheet?" 

 

With the events of recent years, I can't help but think that many of us haven't moved very far away from the emotions that overwhelmed the people of Indiana in the 1920s. May we not be doomed to repeat such a dark chapter of our history.

 

A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them

by Timothy Egan

eISBN: 9780735225275

Penguin Publishing Group © 2023

432 pages

 

Non-Fiction

Rating: A+

Source: Purchased from Amazon.