Title: Southern Sass and a Battered Bride (A Marygene Brown Mystery #3)
Author: Kate Young
Published on: 27 April 2021
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Marygene is back! Her ex-boyfriend Alex is getting married to Lucy and Marygene is catering the event. Lucy is being nothing but a pain-in-the-you-know-where – bridezilla or worse? The theme of the wedding is murder-mystery – Lucy plays the role of the ‘victim’.
As the ‘show’ begins, Lucy is lying beside the wedding cake, covered in batter and it is time to find the murderer; the only problem is, Lucy is dead for real! By the time the cops come in, the corpse goes missing. The case of the missing corpse? Uh-huh!
Marygene and her best friend Betsy are on their way home when their car crashes and they are pulled out by Paul (Marygene’s boyfriend) minutes before the car explodes. On inspection, it is found the car’s breaks were tampered with and a bomb was fitted in – someone wanted to harm Marygene. With the help of Mama, Marygene’s late mother (who appears often in spirit form), Marygene must solve the case before she becomes the next victim.
Southern Sass and a Battered Bride is the third book in A Marygene Brown Mystery series by Kate Young. Though it can be read as a standalone, if you are new to the series, I highly recommend you to start with book #1.
Southern Sass and a Battered Bride is a fantastic addition to my favorite series. Also, a new favorite in the series. Be it the mystery behind the ‘battered’ and ‘missing’ bride/corpse, the suspense or the character portrayal, boy oh boy, Kate Young has done an excellent job in keeping her fans hooked on to the story until the end!
Don’t get me started on the ending. I was like, wow! How did that happen?!! What a fantastic ending – totally unexpected and mind-blowing. Marygene and Betsy are suspects in Lucy’s “murder” – well, when the ‘corpse’ goes ‘missing’ in front of hundreds of people, can it still be called murder?
Alex, Marygene’s ex-boyfriend, is acting weird. He blames Marygene and Betsy for ruining his wedding; his mother files a complaint against the two for ‘making Lucy disappear’ – oh well, Marygene and Betsy are no Houdini!! Hmph!
The suspects list (Marygene’s) is long and plenty of red herrings throughout so don’t try to play detective here – unless you want to be disappointed by the outcome. Excellent character portrayal – from the regular ones like Marygene, Betsy, Aunty V, Mama, Eddie to newcomers like Lucy and Paul. The mystery is well-maintained until the end. We also have a dash of romance to spice things up a bit.
Southern Sass and a Battered Bride is an entertaining, engrossing and riveting cozy mystery. This book is making its way to my Best Books of 2021 list; do I need to say more?
Many thanks to Kensington Books and NetGalley for the ARC.
The Book Decoder 
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