Hit and Run by Sandra Balzo is the third book in the “Main Street” murder mystery series. Publisher: Severn House Publishers, July 2014

Journalist AnnaLise Griggs’ return to her hometown in North Carolina’s western mountains has led to some unexpected surprises – most notably the discovery that legendary womanizer Dickens Hart is her birth father, and she an heir to Hart’s huge fortune.

Founder of the White Tail Lodge – a High Country knock-off of the Playboy concept – Hart now claims he wants to ‘do right’ by any other children he may have fathered. To that end, he’s invited all his former lovers and potential heirs, including AnnaLise and her own mother, Daisy, to what Hart envisions as a festive Thanksgiving weekend at the sprawling lakeside mansion.

But not everybody is in a celebratory mood, and when a body is discovered dead in the bed, AnnaLise is left with the impossible task of identifying the killer.

I really love this evenly paced and well-executed drama with its comfortable tone and a small town southern atmosphere. This light whodunit was hard to put down, as I had to know who did what to whom in this darling of a mystery. The author did a great job in pulling it all together with a bevy of suspects who could have done the dastardly deed and I was a bit surprise not at who did it, but at how and why it was done. AnnaLise who tries to do the right thing, does a good job at solving this puzzle, is supported by a quirky cast of characters that includes her mother, her mama and her best friend Joy who is an absolute hoot. I look forward to more adventures with AnnaLise in the next book in this delightfully charming series.