Political Peaches

Penny Weaver and her friends are engaged in a tense political campaign to elect new Commissioners in imaginary Shagbark County, N.C. One of their opponents' campaign managers is killed, and their own leading candidate, African American Rick Clegg, is arrested. Then the campaign turns nasty. Their computer files are stolen. A big public relations firm is hired by Phoney Alway, Rick's opponent, to print sleazy postcards. Penny and her friends differ radically about how to deal with their opponents' below the belt and illegal behavior. The Sheriff's lead detective is baffled, so Penny and her friends solve the murder. One reviewer says this: Greed undercuts the friendly, diverse community of Shagbark County, North Carolina. Guarding their way of life, leaders emerge and discover that playing in local politics is like kissing a buzzing wasp nest with sunburnt lips on a summer afternoon. There is wisdom and warmth in the heroes and heroines of this tale. Novelist and poet Judy Hogan's new mystery, Political Peaches, is a tasty "cobbler" and treat you will enjoy. -Karl Kachergis, former Chair Chatham Democratic Party, 2007-11.