The majority of "Bubba and the Dead Woman" by C.L. Bevill is written in soliloquy form, featuring Bubba the protagonist's thoughts, and his bassett hound, Precious' thoughts. The story is filled with good 'ol boy colloquial euphemism's; the narration, for the most part, simply tells the tale instead of showing the reader what is happening. This reader suspects Bevill wanted to come across with a gossipy tone of voice, like two neighbors sharing the latest tidbits about those they know - but in this readers view, it fell flat. In fact, Bevill tended to shift narrative point of view from one sentence to the next, making it difficult for this reader to follow along at times. Grammar, spelling and punctuation errors, especially towards the later half of the story; a continuity error that tossed this reader right out of the story in frustration, might have been discovered with some editing. Bubba's mother, Miz Demetrice met Joe Bruce after Bubba sent her to visit her sister in Dallas. Joe Bruce makes the comment, "And they called Melissa Dearman from the Snoddy Mansion" and the odd part of his statement is he was just introduced to Bubba and friends, having just met Miz Demetrice earlier that day. So how did he know about the phone call? However, even with the continuity error, this reader did finish Bevill's tale, mainly to confirm her guess on who the murderer really was, was correct. It was. Bevill is most definitely creative and really thought the plot out; she offered many red herrings in the mystery, which usually adds to the fun of figuring things out. This readers main complaint was that the story was told versus shown... instead of the funny euphemism's to state things, show the reader emotions so they can connect with the characters and feel empathy for or with them. This reader never connected with any of the characters at all, but really wanted to connect with Miz Demetrice, especially. ** Review originally posted to Amazon reviews on January 24, 2017. **
