SINCE YOU'RE LEAVING ANYWAY, TAKE OUT THE TRASH

Author: Dixie Cash ISBN: 0060595361 9/2004 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: AVON/Harper Collins

All Debbie Sue Overstreet got out of her marriage to the sheriff of Salt Lick, Texas, was a gas station that didn't pump! So she turned the property into the Styling Station, the best beauty parlor in town -- and if she didn't get rich, at least she learned all the local gossip. But she wasn't prepared for the news that the nastiest woman in town had been bumped off! Suddenly, everyone's a suspect and Debbie Sue decides to go after the reward ... even if it means she's got to get close to Buddy, that lousy, good-looking ex-husband of hers. Debbie Sue's investigation sends her on a wild ride. Who is the man named Eugene ... and what's with his alter-ego Janine? Where is the mysterious red-haired woman? Why is Buddy trying to get her back? And, scariest of all, when did she begin to think he could be right?

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

SINCE YOU'RE LEAVING ANYWAY, TAKE OUT THE TRASH, the debut novel by Dixie Cash, should have left the title by the curb. The inside is much better than the cover implies, much to my relief. No offense, but when I read a title like that I usually leave the book on the shelf.

The good thing is, the story overrides the tackiness on the outside. I laughed a little...well, a lot, when Debbie Sue (the heroine) and her high school beau, Quint, got together. I rooted for Buddy (the hero) and Debbie Sue to get back together and sympathized with their situation. I even enjoyed a couple of side stories involving some zany secondary characters. There is quite a bit going on in that town!

Now the murder of the small West Texas town slut wasn't all that engrossing, despite the fact that the book is centered around that juicy tidbit. She isn't a person that I or any of the characters truly care about anyway. (Heartless, I know, but remember it's just a book and she isn't real.) When the relationship between that victim and the killer is revealed, it's summed up in what feels like two pages out of the whole book. That is a pretty short and tidy ending to a book that frankly exists due to that very murder.

The humor is truly what kept me reading this one. The funny stuff gets me to give a favorable review every time. SINCE YOU'RE LEAVING ANYWAY, TAKE OUT THE TRASH is worth reading just for that.

Shannon Johnson