Miss Julia Rocks the Cradle

At the start of Ross's slow-moving 12th Miss Julia mystery set in Abbotsville, N.C. (after 2010's Miss Julia Renews Her Vows), Miss Julia's stepson, Lloyd, a student in Miss Petty's social studies class, breathlessly tells Julia, "They found a body in Miss Petty's outhouse" (actually, the teacher's toolshed). Embezzler and ex-con Richard Stroud appears to have died of natural causes while spying on his former business partner, Thurlow Jones. Miss Julia never recovered the money Richard once stole from her, and Richard had again been forging checks on her account. In one exciting development in an otherwise placid plot, Hazel Marie Pickens gives birth to twins during a blizzard attended by, among others, Miss Julia, home health care professional Etta Mae Wiggins, and Lloyd, whose dad was Miss Julia's late two-timing husband, Wesley Lloyd Springer. The sweet down-home humor only partly redeems a thin and far-fetched mystery. 5-city author tour. (Apr.)