Feet of Clay

by Ruth Birmingham

Her personal life may be a mess. And no one said her family was sane. But as lead detective at Atlanta's Peachtree Investigations, hard-nosed, fast-talking PI Sunny Childs is always up for cracking a case. And now starring in her sixth mystery, Sunny is in thick. When her cousin Lee-Lee, a documentary filmmaker who's interviewing convicted murderer and rapist Dale Weedlow, invites Sunny along for the ride, Sunny knows her very presence will probably...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312284241
• ISBN13: 9780312284244
• Release Date: May 2006
• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Length: 250 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Good Read

After waiting in vain for this book to come out in paperback, I finally picked up the hardcover. Unfortunately, so much time had gone by since I'd read the last installment of the series that I had trouble remembering much about Sunny or her world. And, while I enjoyed this book, I do remember liking the previous installments better. I'm not sure if there are more books forthcoming, but the author would be well-served to concentrate on Sunny and not her psycho cousin Lee-Lee, who was nothing but a distraction to this story and probably caused me to like it less than I would have had Sunny handled this case on her own.

Small Southern Town vs. Sunny Childs -- No Contest

Atlanta PI Sunny Childs tells her flighty cousin Lee-Lee no when the girl asks her to go to the small Georgia town of Jackson in Flournoy County to help her with a film documentary she wants to make about a killer who is about to get the needle. Dale Weedlaw is going to be executed in less that a week for the brutal murder of a pair of girls. Lee-Lee sees this documentary as her big break. Sunny sees it as just another of Lee-Lee's erratic stabs at some kind of stardom. However, after being in town for only a short while, Lee-Lee is arrested. Seems she's been asking too many questions, irritating the locals, who apparently don't like big city outsiders poking around, especially women, and if just one in town irritates them, imagine how they're going to feel after Sunny shows up, bails her cousin out and then starts asking questions herself. Sunny isn't a flighty, inexperienced, wanna be somebody. She knows who she is (well kinda) and she knows what she's about (well kinda) and she knows how to kick you know what? So when she confronts a small southern town full of secrets they want kept secret, secrets they're willing to let an innocent man die for, secrets they're willing to do anything to keep left in the dark, well Sunny is in her element and you will be too if you give this outstanding chick P.I. book a read. Sunny is a fabulous character, tough and resilient and not too, too irritating. I just love her.

fabulous regional mystery

Atlanta's Peachtree Investigations top private investigator Sunny Childs refuses to help her enthusiastic cousin Lee-Lee film a documentary on death row convict Germind Dale Weedlaw, who is to be executed in Jackson in a few days. Dale was found guilty of brutally raping and killing two women in Flournoy County. Not long afterward, at two in the morning, Sunny, sleeping with her fianc? FBI Special Agent Barrington Cherry, receives a collect call from a prison in Flournoy County from Lee-Lee, who has been arrested. Three hours after the call, Sunny and her brother attorney Walter arrive in the office of the county's sheriff in Pettigrew, Georgia. Lee-Lee insists she was falsely arrested because of her questions about the Weedlaw case. Sunny and Walter get her freed, but the sleuth stays around to keep the filmmaker out of trouble. They soon find stronger suspects than the convicted as they interview hostile locals. In her sixth appearance, Sunny is at her best as she deals with her zealous cousin and townsfolk who would prefer to lynch the outsiders than answer their inquiries. The story line focuses on a serious topic of capital crime while also uses family relationships and some local eccentric characters to provide humor. Ruth Birmingham shows why this is an award winning series with a fabulous regional mystery. Harriet Klausner