In Don’t Mess with Mrs. Sedgewick by Marie F. Martin, Roberta Sedgewick gets the idea to round up her three other widowed friends and move into four adjoining condos, where they can live the good life for the rest of their years. Then Roberta gets approached by Audrey, who begs for a job, offering to clean their houses. That fateful day will change the lives of all four women, as Audrey goes snooping through their secrets. All four have secret crimes hidden in their past that they have told no one about until Audrey shows up. When Lynette catches Audrey snooping through Roberta’s possessions, Audrey turns on her and demands $10,000 not to tell the cops about Lynette’s hidden secret. She then proceeds to blackmail Roberta and Mildred. In fear of the exposure of her own past, Sonia disappears. It becomes up to Roberta to deal with the blackmailer and the subsequent conflicts that arise.
Don’t Mess with Mrs. Sedgewick contains an interesting premise, but I felt that it didn’t live up to its potential. I wanted to connect with the characters, but while I sympathized with the ladies, I didn’t feel the outrage by their being blackmailed that I should have experienced. In addition, the narrative style felt disconnected, as it switches between first person present narration by Roberta Sedgewick and third person past narration about each woman’s crime. Further, I felt that the conclusion was somewhat abrupt at wrapping things up, and Mrs. Sedgewick dealt with Audrey in such a nice way that the title didn’t fit well.
There is one character I really did love, that of the character whom the women meet as Tony while fishing and then see as a glamour girl singer as Toni. We feel genuine sympathy and appreciation for this cross- dressing individual as we get to know the character’s story.
The audiobook is performed by Becky White, who does a good job of helping readers connect with this somewhat difficult book. She uses effective accents to give life to the characters, making them more realistic than they might otherwise have been.
I really wanted to like Don’t Mess with Mrs. Sedgewick, but I was disappointed by the quality of the writing. I feel that the author has real promise but didn’t live up to her potential with this particular book. Hopefully her next book will be stronger. I give this book three stars.
Disclaimer: I was given this book for free for review purposes, but that had no influence on the content of my review.
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