Edith/Maddie writing from north of Boston, where fall has arrived with a vengeance.
Yes, I’m a summer lover. I’m already grieving the end of sweet corn from the farm a mile away, of my garden’s sun-warmed Asian eggplants and tomatoes of all sizes, of blueberries and raspberries, of swimmable-temperature water (all two weeks of it) and reading on the beach. Yes, I know sweater and boot season is coming, along with cider donuts and soups and hot tea. I’d rather have summer, thank you very much.
But let’s not get dark before the days actually do. I’m delighted to show you the cover of set-in-summer Batter Off Dead, Country Store Mystery #10! Read down for a giveaway.
Isn’t that fun? Depicted is the front porch of Jupiter Springs Assisted Living. (I’m not sure how Robbie’s kitty Birdy got there, but that’s the cover artist’s prerogative.) Here’s the blurb:
In Batter Off Dead, Robbie Jordan and her new husband Abe O’Neill are enjoying a summer evening in the park with fellow townsfolk excited for some Friday night fireworks. In attendance are senior residents from Jupiter Springs Assisted Living including Roy Bird, father to South Lick’s very own Police Lieutenant Buck Bird. Despite his blindness, Roy is a member of his group home’s knitting circle, spending quality time with some lovely ladies.
But when the lightshow ends, one of the knitters who sat with Roy is found dead, a puncture wound in her neck. The poor woman’s death echoes that of Buck’s mother— Roy’s wife—an unsolved homicide. To help find the killer, Robbie’s going to have to untangle the knotty relationships deep in the victim’s past…
The book releases February 22, which is suddenly seeming sooner that it had been. I’ve finished a Christmas Scarf novella in the Country Store series, to release in about a year, and am deep into first draft of Four Leaf Cleaver, book eleven (yes, which takes place around St. Patrick’s Day).
To celebrate, and to be sure you’re up-to-date on the series, I have codes for two audiobooks of the previous book, No Grater Crime, to give away!
Readers: What’s your favorite thing to make – or eat – from a batter?