The American Café [by] Sara Sue Hoklotubbe
Tucson; The University of Arizona Press [2011]
978-0-8165-2922-3; $16.00
When Sadie Walela decides to give up her banking job in order to fulfill her
childhood dream of owning a restaurant, she has no idea that murder will be on the menu. She goes down to the restaurant she has just purchased from Goldie Ray, to wait for a painter to put the new name on the window – “The American Café” – just like on her great-aunt Vera’s restaurant in the 40’s. She is threatened with a shotgun by the town’s crazy lady, and saved only because a group of sawmill workers are there on break (They all have keys!)
childhood dream of owning a restaurant, she has no idea that murder will be on the menu. She goes down to the restaurant she has just purchased from Goldie Ray, to wait for a painter to put the new name on the window – “The American Café” – just like on her great-aunt Vera’s restaurant in the 40’s. She is threatened with a shotgun by the town’s crazy lady, and saved only because a group of sawmill workers are there on break (They all have keys!)
Then she finds out that Goldie, who was to help her get started, is dead. And she was really looking forward to getting to know Goldie, too! Rather depressed, she goes home. Meanwhile, the crazy lady finds herself a good rock, the police check the crime scene, finding the busted window, and the newest cop on the two-man force meets the crazy lady’s son, visiting from Arkansas.
The crazy lady is taken into custody after she confesses at church to shooting Goldie, and there in jail she commits suicide. Sadie gets help at the diner because Goldie’s sister Emma comes calling, looking for Goldie. She is angry that an Indian woman has bought Goldie out, because she’d hoped to run the diner, but she makes the best of it, and starts to cook for Sadie. She is excellent. Then the half-Indian girl Emma had adopted, Rosalee, starts work as a waitress/cashier. Rosalee is on a mission to find her birth parents, much to Emma’s disgust.
Meanwhile, the manager of the local bank asks Sadie to take his place for 2 days. She is reluctant to do so, but feels she owes him. She discovers that the bank’s one teller, Polly, is skimming money from her cash drawer. That night, Sadie is locked in the vault, and it is only because the new deputy, Lance, is expecting her to join him elsewhere, that he traces her to the bank and gets her out. The next night, she is knocked out, after Polly quits in a snit.
Lance is shot helping a friend of his at a drug bust, and the shell matches the one that killed Goldie. Things move very fast, then, with Sadie almost killed by Goldie’s murderer, Rosalee finding her birth parents, and a surviving relative, and the Café changing hands. While striving to untangle relationships and old family secrets, Sadie ends up unraveling far more than a murder.
This is an absorbing mystery that draws the reader into the rich history, culture and landscape of Cherokee Country. The American Café has all of the twists and turns expected in a first-rate mystery, but that’s only part of its charm. A gifted story teller, Sara Hoklotubbe writes of family, the fragile ties that bind people together, and the links to the past that are always just below the surface of things. Compassionate and wonderful! Highly recommended! ~ lss-r
_________________
This is my own book.
Thank you so much for showcasing THE AMERICAN CAFE on your blog! It is great to have support from readers and librarians like you. It is much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteSara Hoklotubbe