Crafts and Life

James "Professor Puff" Henry may as well have "loser" stamped on his forehead. Divorced, overweight, shy, and living at home, he relies on books and his favorite snack — cheese puffs — for sweet relief from his problems. A former English lit professor at William and Mary, he moves back to Quincy's Gap, a small Virginia town in the Shenandoah Valley, to take care of his recently-widowed father. To improve his social life and waistline, he joins a supper club for dieters who lovingly call themselves the "Flab Five." Avoiding carbs is nearly impossible in this deep-fried potato-loving land, so a mysterious death in their small burg provides an effective, if disturbing, distraction. While dodging delectable temptations, Professor Henry and his fellow dieters work together to shed pounds and find the killer who has struck fear in this tight-knit community.

James Henry has come home to look after his father after the sudden death of his mother, he is lucky enough to get a job at the local library (and he has two wonderful assistants in the form of the Fitzgerald twins), about a month after starting at the job an attractive, but overweight, woman asks if she can put up a flier for a weight loss group and seeing as James is overweight he decides to join.  There turns out to be 5 of them so they call themselves the Flab Five and settle down to shifting pounds!  As well as avoiding temptation though the five of them get dragged into a murder case, the local Football hero is killed and it seems he wasn't as well liked as he would have liked to have thought!