The Tea-Olive Bird Watching Society
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4.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
“Delightful.” BOOKLIST
“Readers will laugh at the antics of steel magnolia vigilante justice as the tea-toting, bible-quoting ladies fumble and bumble in their endeavor to protect their cohort and town . . . . the classic good rural vs. evil-urban premise makes for a fine, polite (sort of like a southern contemporary Arsenic and Old Lace) . . . tale.” – Harriet Klausner Book Reviews
Coconut cake, grits, poisoned turtle stew, and bird-watching . . . the ladies of tiny Tea-Olive, Georgia share a lot of interests, including murder.
Retired judge L. Hyson Breed, a Yankee, picked the wrong Southern woman to trick, bully, and steal from. The members of the Tea-Olive Bird Watching Society plot revenge after the judge’s marriage to their friend, Sweet, turns out to be a greedy grab for her land and for control of their town. To the rescue: Beulah, Zion and Wildwood (all named after hymns, as is Sweet). The only problem? The wannabe murderers are southern matrons from a more civilized generation. How does one remain polite even while planning to kill a man and get away with it?
Augusta Trobaugh is the acclaimed author of these southern novels also from Bell Bridge Books
SOPHIE AND THE RISING SUN
MUSIC FROM BEYOND THE MOON
RIVER JORDAN
RESTING IN THE BOSOM OF THE LAMB
SWAN PLACE
PRAISE JERUSALEM!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Treading the familiar ground of women's friendship in the South, Trobaugh's sixth novel (after The River Jordan) exalts the bonds among Beulah, Zion, Wildwood and Sweet, four Tea-Olive, Ga., churchgoing ladies (all named after hymns) and founding members of the titular society. Trobaugh chronicles how Beulah and Zion come to plot the murder of Judge Hyson Breed, a New Yorker who retires to their quiet town, seduces Sweet into marriage and then bullies her into giving up not only her ancestral land but also her lifelong friends. He ingratiates himself with the merchants of Tea-Olive and insinuates himself into the town leadership for his own nefarious purposes. Readers who like their villains irredeemably evil and their heroines glowing "with that special shine of women who do good for the community and who love the Lord with all their hearts" may forgive the predictability of the plot and enjoy the well-meaning characters forced by dire circumstances to draw on all of their resourcefulness to protect their friends, their town and their cherished values while remaining unfailingly polite. Less forgiving readers may be unamused by Beulah and Zion's attempts at vigilante justice against their cardboard nemesis.
