Showing results by narrator "Liz Cloud" in All Categories

In these nine essays, Susan Lieberman is exploring The Country of Old, in which she finds herself a new immigrant. She examines the difficulties of leaving "that other place" and making sense of this new country. Lieberman's touch is light but her analysis of the challenges/opportunities of aging is provocative. "If we are not old, then we are dead," she notes. And if we are, indeed, not dead then how can we live well in this moment in our life span?

Retta and her FBI-agent boyfriend stop in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for the night. Lars goes out on a mysterious errand and disappears, leaving a text message that says he's dumping Retta for an old flame. The police take the message at face value, but Retta, sure it's a lie, calls in sisters Faye and Barb. As they begin following leads, they meet three sisters who might be future versions of them: Betty, a sweetheart who loves the Green Bay Packers; DeeAnne, a dramatic type who is always in acting mode; and Lydia, a business-like grump.

A midnight murder comes to Allport. The victim was a newcomer to Allport who was engaged to marry a local businessman’s attractive but spoiled daughter. Retta finds Frannie Habedank particularly irritating, since the younger woman commands the attention of just about any man who comes near her. Perhaps rightly and perhaps not, Retta is convinced Frannie killed her fiancé. As the Sleuth Sisters probe the mystery, they learn Frannie’s father wasn’t completely happy with his prospective son-in-law.