"Organic farming, local foods, and a solid cozy murder mystery!"
Reviewed by Debbie Wiley
Posted June 22, 2014
Mystery
Running and maintaining an organic farm isn't easy! Cameron
"Cam" Flaherty never expected all the social obligations
that would occur when she decided to leave the computer
business and take over her Uncle Albert's farm. Her first
farm-to-table dinner appears to be a smashing success...
until
someone winds up dead afterwards. Now Cam finds herself- and
her farm- smack dab in the middle of yet another murder
investigation. Irene Burr ruffled a lot of feathers but who
was angry enough to actually murder her? Will Cam survive
when the danger heats up?
I love the concept behind Edith Maxwell's Local Foods
mystery series! 'TIL DIRT DO US PART is the second entry
into this mystery series featuring an organic farmer who
finds out that bugs and weather struggles are only part of
her problem. Edith Maxwell was actually the owner of an
organic farm herself and her knowledge clearly shows in the
series. We see the struggles of an independent farmer,
particularly one who is going against some of the
conventional farming methods and foregoing things such as
pesticides. The foray into the local markets and fairs where
Cam sells (and eventually competes) is especially
insightful.
The Locavores, a group of locals who make up a large part of
Cam's business and only eat local foods, are an interesting
bunch and I am glad we get to see more of them. Edith
Maxwell does a marvelous job at crafting quirky characters!
I love that we are seeing more of Detective Pappas as Edith
Maxwell throws a few interesting twists into 'TIL DIRT DO US
PART.
'TIL DIRT DO US PART is a fun and entertaining cozy mystery
that has me hooked! Edith Maxwell cleverly mixes in a nice
education about the value of local foods and organic farming
while providing the reader with a fascinating mystery. I
look forward to reading more books by Edith Maxwell and
seeing what future struggles the winter gardening season may
hold for Cam!
SUMMARY
The produce is local - and so is the crime - when long-
simmering tensions lead to murder following a festive dinner
on Cam Flaherty's farm. It'll take a sleuth who knows the
lay of the land to catch this killer. But no one ever said
Cam wasn't willing to get her hands dirty... Autumn has descended on Westbury, Massachusetts, but the
mood at the Farm-to-Table Dinner in Cam's newly built barn
is unseasonably chilly. Local entrepreneur Irene Burr made a
lot of enemies with her plan to buy Westbury's Old Town Hall
and replace it with a textile museum-enough enemies to fill
out a list of suspects when the wealthy widow turns up dead
on a neighboring farm. Even an amateur detective like Cam can figure out that one
of the resident locavores went loco - at least temporarily -
and settled a score with Irene. But which one? With the Fall
harvest upon her, Cam must sift through a bushelful of
possible killers that includes Irene's estranged stepson,
her disgruntled auto mechanic, and a fellow CSA subscriber
who seems suspiciously happy to have the dead woman out of
the way.
The closer she gets to weeding out the culprit, the more Cam
feels like someone is out to cut her harvest short. But to
keep her own body out of the compost pile, she'll have to
wrap this case up quickly.
What do you think about this review?
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