Being a recent transplant to the south (arrived 30 years ago) I enjoyed the look into Southern Culture that this book gives both from 1932 and 1972.
The book covers two murders, 40 years apart. Bead Baker in 1932 and her granddaughter Little Mary in 1972 – both women have been severally beaten.
There is a lot happening in this book with the characters and story lines. The reader is quickly pulled into the town of Homeville Virginia and its residents. The main character is a young woman, Cotton Lee who as a child had polio that left her with a limp. Her disability is seen by the town as a cause for her to be fragile and maybe not intelligent. Cotton uses her limp to her advantage in helping investigate the murders.
There were only two things that I think kept this from being a 5 star book for me. One is that being the first book in the series, I felt like the author was trying to get all of her set up done in one book. Second, I would have like to see more from the eyes of Cotton Lee and heard more of her voice.
This is definitely a well written story and I hope to read more of Cotton’s Historical Mysteries.
BLURB
Polio disabled Cotton Lee’s leg, but not her sexuality, not her mind, and not her ability to connect the murder of her friend Little Mary in 1972 to that of Bead Baker in 1932. Gone on Sunday follows the lives of the Baker family, their black servants, and the townspeople they knew in Homeville, Virginia. Alternating between 1972 and 1932, Cotton Lee’s investigation into the murder of Bead Baker brings out secrets kept for decades. With suspects ranging from a housewife, to a cook, and even a rumored witch, Cotton Lee needs to find the solution to the first murder in order to know the history of the second.
Jennie Reads 
Great review, on my to read list!
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