Bookish Regina Metcalf isn't the most exciting heroine to ever grace the pages of a romance novel, but compared to her strung-out, back-stabbing sisters, she's certainly the most well-adjusted character in this rollicking comic mystery from Bond (Got Your Number). There's nothing ordinary about the goings-on in Monroeville, N.C., despite the book's familiar premise: three sisters torn apart by a man meet up years later, ostensibly to make amends. Events quickly snowball out of control when Regina learns her elder sister has been shot at; her younger sister has an abusive boyfriend; and her parents are in debt, splitting up and auctioning off the items from their antique store. To top everything off, the man who was convicted of murdering Regina's aunt 20 years earlier has requested a new trial, and the appraiser the bank has sent is sexy, funny and, for some odd reason, interested in Regina. But when an unsavory character with ties to the Metcalfs turns up dead, the sisters are forced to come to terms with a secret from their past and the knowledge that a killer may be after them. Near palpable romantic sparks and whodunit tension hold the reader's interest, and the book's humorous antics leaven an otherwise sober story line. With its energetic prose and cozy Southern setting, this read is a sterling source of laughs and lighthearted fun. (Aug.)
