In Miss Julia to the Rescue by Ann B. Ross, Miss Julia is alarmed to receive a strange phone call with a lot of static and asking for her husband, Sam. But Sam is on a tour of the Holy Land with Pastor Ledbetter, so Miss Julia turns to her former boarder, Sgt. Coleman. The police officer finally discovers that J.D. Pickens, the husband of Hazel Marie and father of her twins, has been picked up by a police department in West Virginia after getting shot. But unable to get further information about Mr. Pickens, Miss Julia calls Etta Mae Wiggins, a nurse’s aid, and takes off for West Virginia from North Carolina. There the people in the hospital refuse to tell the pair about their John Doe, whom they are certain is Mr. Pickins. Then Sheriff McAfee won’t reveal anything about Mr. Pickins’s identity, saying the man had no identification papers on his body, so the sheriff can’t reveal anything about him. Even though he admits that his John Doe is not under arrest, he won’t let them see the man because he is in “protective custody.” So they can’t even confirm if the hospitalized man is indeed their friend.
It takes lots of crazy planning and conniving between Miss Julia and Etta Mae, but Miss Julia makes her way into the hospital under the guise of a nutritionist assistant. With several adventures with patients as she makes her way towards the forbidden door which might hide Mr. Pickins, Julia finally makes it. But when she gets to the room, she discovers that Mr. Pickins has been overly sedated, and he can’t get out of bed because he has been shot in the rear end. So because they could never sneak him out of the hospital, Miss Julia and Etta Mae pull Mr. Pickins out of the window and drag him to the back seat of the car and take off to get home as quickly as possible.
The rest of Miss Julia to the Rescue involves plenty of drama related to this escape and to other wild events happening in Julia’s community, where a cult has settled in. With lots of excitement and humor throughout, the book makes us cry one minute and laugh the next. There are so many situations that keep us wanting more.
The characters of the book come alive in a clever manner so that they seem to be real people, rather strange ones but real ones. Miss Julia goes through her wild experiences with aplomb and dignity. Etta Mae, while much lower class than Miss Julia, is delightful as Julia’s sidekick. The scene where the pair run out of a church when the members get out snakes to handle them “in faith” is one of the funniest scenes of the series so far. Other characters create as much humor as Miss Julia and Etta Mae.
Cynthia Darlow does another outstanding job as performer of the audio edition of this book. She uses highly convincing voices for each character, with plenty of diversity to her range of voices. Further, she uses strong expressions and timing, making the book flow well and strengthen the humor of the incidents.
As with most other books in this series, Miss Julia to the Rescue was such a fun experience to listen to. The story had so much humor, and it has just enough curious occurrences to make the book a gentle cozy mystery. I give this book five stars.
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