Harley Jean Davidson is a Memphis Tour Guide who can't seem to stay out of trouble. She wants to. She really does. Heading into her least favorite time of year, that annual craziness known as the Super Bowl of Elvis competitions, Harley doesn't need more complications in her life. After all, when a girl has a psychic mother who refuses to leave the 70's behind, a father who's a fanatical Elvis impersonator bent on winning this year's competition, an obnoxious brother who changes his hair color as often as most of us change our clothes, a cat nobody else can live with and a cross-dressing best friend she just happens to work for, who needs the excitement? But when dead bodies begin turning up in her life again (there are two previous books in this series: King's Ransom and Deadly Design) and her cop boyfriend suddenly shuts down their relationship, Harley finds herself at the center of another bizarre investigation.
Elvis impersonators are dying. A fellow employee is murdered. Customers panic and begin to cancel tours. Harley is attacked. And her childhood friend, Detective Bobby Baroni, berates Harley for interference in police business. Whispering Pines, the retirement home of her nana, suddenly seems like an attractive place to hide. Not! Harley's nana is a headstrong, gunslinging firebrand who escalates the adventure to hilarious new heights. Throwing caution to the wind, the two women go after a killer Elvis. But in a town full of Elvises and up against an adversary who seems to anticipate their every move, time may be running out for Harley.
Evil Elvis is a book I wanted to dislike but couldn't. The tale seemed to move too slowly, and there was unnecessary repetition in dialogue and in exposition. Yet, in the end, these flaws didn't matter. This was a story filled with intriguing paradoxes: eccentric characters I could picture living next door to me; a modern atmosphere that somehow called up unlikely memories of Nancy Drew and Trixie Beldon; crisp, solid writing that allowed for such an effortless reading experience I began to suspect I was in the hands of a seasoned author; even a plot that managed to be, at once, both familiar and surprising. I'm glad I read it.
Clayton Bye
GWN reviewer
copyright © 2006 Clayton Clifford Bye
