Miss Dimple and the Slightly Bewildered Angel

Miss Dimple Mysteries Series, Book 5

by Mignon F. Ballard

ebook

1 of 1 copy available

October, 1944. It has been a challenging season for Elderberry's favorite first grade teacher, Miss Dimple Kilpatrick. A beloved former student was recently killed in the war, her brother has become distant, and her friend Odessa, the cook at Pheobe's rooming house, has taken a leave of absence to care for a relative. Still, when Dimple's librarian friend, Virginia, finds a young woman, Dora, on the library porch looking for a place to spend the night, soft-hearted Dimple brings her back to Phoebe's and offers her food and a warm coat. But when Dimple is trying to find her a place to sleep, the young girl disappears.
The next morning, Miss Dimple answers a knock on the door expecting it to be the girl. Instead, she is greeted by greeted by a somewhat disheveled young woman with lustrous hair and a sunrise of a smile who claims she has been assigned to fill in at the house. Augusta Goodnight, a guardian angel who has been summoned from a well-deserved rest after a series of troublesome earthly duties, has taken up at Phoebe's.
When Dora is discovered dead - murdered - the real reason for Augusta's "assignment" becomes clear, at least to Augusta. Reluctantly, Miss Dimple teams up with Augusta to find out who the killer is.

Creators
- Mignon F. Ballard
  
  Author
Series

Miss Dimple Kilpatrick
Publisher

St. Martin's Publishing Group
Release date

August 2, 2016
Formats
- Kindle Book
- OverDrive Read
  - ISBN: 9781250083647
  - File size: 921 KB
- EPUB ebook
  - ISBN: 9781250083647
  - File size: 921 KB
Languages
- English
Reviews
- Publisher's Weekly
  
  June 20, 2016
  Guardian angel Augusta Goodnight, the star of Ballard’s paranormal cozy series, lends celestial support to first-grade teacher Miss Dimple Kilpatrick in the author’s feel-good fifth WWII-era mystery (after 2014’s Miss Dimple Picks a Peck of Trouble). One afternoon in October 1944, Miss Dimple spots a frightened stranger, Dora Westbrook, on the porch of the Elderberry, Ga., library. When Miss Dimple learns that Dora has no place to stay, she takes the poor woman to her friend Phoebe Chadwick’s boarding house for a hot meal. Dora winds up seeking shelter at the local Presbyterian church, and the next morning the part-time sexton finds her dead body on the floor below the steeple ladder. Did she attempt to climb the ladder and take a fatal fall? With the guidance of the otherworldly Augusta, Miss Dimple searches for answers. Ballard expertly weaves the lives of her endearing small-town characters with details of the wartime home front. Agent: Laura Langlie, Laura Langlie Agency.
- Kirkus
  
  June 1, 2016
  The murder of a newcomer to the little Georgia town of Elderberry deeply disturbs longtime residents.Beloved schoolteacher Dimple Kilpatrick (Miss Dimple Picks a Peck of Trouble, 2014, etc.) and her friends are doing their best to help the war effort in 1944. The strain of their fear for loved ones in the armed services and the deprivations of everyday life are redoubled when Odessa Kirby, the wonderful cook at the boardinghouse owned by Miss Dimple's friend Phoebe Chadwick, leaves to care for a relative. But this latest problem is quickly resolved by the mysterious appearance of Augusta Goodnight (Hark! The Herald Angel Screamed, 2008, etc.), whose cooking, cleaning, and sympathetic manner quickly win over Miss Dimple and her friends who live at the boardinghouse. The arrival of Dora, a shy stranger with a paper bag of possessions who just wants to sit on the library porch, brings out the charitable impulses of the community members, who feed her and try to help her find a place to sleep. When she's found dead in a local church, Miss Dimple is shocked and determined to find the truth. Her friends pitch in to hunt up clues, even making a trip to the town where Dora lived. Apparently Dora had left her husband and his horrible mother, who accuses her of theft but gives no details. Though Miss Dimple is reluctant to accompany another group of friends to a small town in Tennessee where more clues to Dora's past may be found, Augusta convinces her to make the journey, which will change Miss Dimple's life. A heartwarming cozy, more notable for period details than mystery, pleasantly enriched by the meeting of Ballard's two sleuthing heroines.
  COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
- Library Journal
  
  July 1, 2016
  Miss Dimple Kilpatrick lives in Phoebe Chadwick's boardinghouse, along with several other ladies. When the body of a young woman who was seen earlier at the library is discovered in the local church, Augusta Goodnight sets out on a mission to reveal the secrets of Elderberry, GA. This latest entry follows Miss Dimple Picks a Peck of Trouble.
  
  Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
- Booklist
  
  July 1, 2016
  In October 1944, the townspeople of Elderberry, Georgia, are war weary. The ladies of Phoebe Chadwick's boardinghouse are no exception, coping with rationing and the departure of their cook. Then two women arrive in Elderberry, and everything changes. First, Phoebe opens her doors to Dora, whom Miss Dimple Kirkpatrick had found on the porch of the village library, unfamiliar with Elderberry and with no place to stay. Back at the boardinghouse, the residents offer Dora fresh clothes and a meal, but when they check on her, she is gone. The next morning, Augusta Goodnight arrives, sent to apply her guardian-angel powers to, well, she isn't quite sure about her mission. Later in the day, Dora is found dead in the steeple of the Presbyterian church. The ladies use all their contacts, as well as Augusta's special skills, to learn more about Dora and how she died. The arrival of Augusta Goodnight from another of Ballard's series will surely delight fans of Carolyn Hart's Bailey Ruth. The WWII home-front setting seems like a fast-forward of Susan Wittig Albert's 1930s-set Darling Dahlias series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)