It's wedding season in Abbotsville, N.C., as bestseller Ross's airy 22nd Miss Julia mystery (after 2020's Miss Julia Knows a Thing or Two) opens, and it seems everyone Miss Julia Murdoch knows is contemplating marriage for all the wrong reasons. Christy Hargrove is giving up her dream of being a doctor. Miss Julia's cherished housekeeper, Lillian, is thinking of hitching herself to a 98-year-old pillar of society just for the status. Helen Stroud has married a man who only seems to need a nurse. And LuAnne Conover, who has just shed herself of a philanderer, has decided she's not cut out for the single life and is fishing for another husband--any husband. Miss Julia knows it's best to keep her lip zipped and be supportive, but that's not her usual modus operandi. Then on top of everything, a naked man is running around town peeping in women's windows at night, scaring everybody half to death. Newcomers won't feel lost in this personality-driven cozy in which nothing too bad happens. This long-running series shows no sign of losing steam. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider Literary. (Apr.)

Wedding bells are ringing in Ross' latest (after Miss Julia Knows a Thing or Two, 2020). Miss Julia's social card is filling up quickly with all of the weddings her friends are planning. Helen is entering a marriage of convenience, Etta Mae may finally be tying the knot with her beau, and even LuAnne might have found Mr. Right. Miss Julia loves a good wedding, but when her longtime maid Lillian considers a not-very-romantic proposal from a local businessman, Miss Julia hopes she says no. The final entry in the beloved series has a few unfortunate elements--a side story about an octogenarian proposing marriage to a teenage girl and a bizarre plotline about a streaker terrorizing Miss Julia and her friends late at night--though the elements come together in the end. But Miss Julia is still Miss Julia, which may be all that longtime fans of the series require.

It's wedding time in Abbotsville, but Miss Julia has little to do. Helen wants a secret wedding, Christy's husband wants a destination wedding, and Lillian might skip the ceremony altogether. But Miss Julia can seek to waylay the stranger vandalizing local gardens. The final installment of the New York Times best-selling series, going out in celebratory style.