Since You’re Leaving<title>Since You’re Leaving Anyway, Take Out The Trash

Everything is big in Texas; hair, hats, humor, homicide and love…

Debbie Sue Overstreet was once married to the most perfect man in Texas, James Russell “Buddy” Overstreet, Jr. When they sadly lost their premature baby boy, they also lost sight of each other and their misunderstandings tore them apart. Now the local Sheriff, her ex-husband, Buddy, still has the power to make her heart flutter, but Debbie Sue can’t work up the courage to tell him that their parting was the biggest mistake of her life.

Debbie Sue runs a small beauty salon in Salt Lick, Texas and is struggling to make ends meet. After Pearl Ann Carruthers, the pretty flirtatious wife of a Texan oil man, is found shot in her Cadillac, the beauty salon becomes the hottest spot in town for all of the best gossip. Debbie Sue and her assistant, Edwina have some theories of their own about the murder. As soon as they hear about a reward posted by Pearl Ann’s husband, they decide that if they can discover the killer’s identity all of their money worries will be over.

Buddy knows that he has little time to find the murderer before it’s out of his jurisdiction. He expects that a team of experts will arrive any day and he will be off the case and made to look incompetent. If this wasn’t enough, Buddy hears that Debbie Sue has started seeing Quint, her old boyfriend. He considers the cowboy bull-rider to be one of the biggest jerks he’s ever come across. Buddy would do anything to send him packing and have Debbie Sue back in his own bed. In the middle of it all, his schoolteacher girlfriend, Kathy, expects to get engaged …and soon.

Since You’re Leaving Anyway, Take Out the Trash will have readers laughing out loud; right from the hilarious drag queen scene to Quint’s hilarious and tragic efforts to win Debbie Sue over. True to life comments overheard in the beauty salon and the bumbling efforts of Debbie Sue and Edwina to track down a killer bring in a taste of small-town reality. Buddy and Debbie Sue belong together; the obstacles in their way could be gone tomorrow, if only one would speak of the shared love and lust that has never really faded. Readers are sure to be rooting for the couple to reunite in the fast-paced final chapters. When the killer’s identity becomes known the tension mounts as one of them walks into life-threatening danger. This is sassy chick-lit, in true country style! I’m sure that the writing team (Anna Jeffrey and Pamela Cumbie) had as much fun writing this as I have had reading it.

Reviewed by: Naomi