After her former fiancΓ© decides he needs to find himself by traveling the world, Piper returns to Cloverdale where her aunt and uncle welcome her with open arms. Piper opens a shop focused on pickles and preserves of all kinds. With the food festival bringing so many people to Cloverdale, she has purchased a huge pickle barrel for the centerpiece of her booth at the fair.
When a local politician is found dead in her pickle barrel, everyone fears for the town of Cloverdale, which depends on the revenue from the fair. The town needs to catch the culprit fast, and since the last person seen arguing with the victim was Nate, a young musician, the sheriff focuses on Nate as primary suspect. Amy, Piper's assistant pleads with Piper to prove the sheriff wrong because she's sweet on Nate doesn't believe he's guilty of murder.
Piper sets out to find out more about the victim and what might have driven someone to murder him. As she investigates, Piper meets Will, the owner of a local tree farm and just the man who could turn her thoughts to romance.
Ms. Hughes has crafted a wonderful mystery around the premise of pickles, items which most of us think of only as a garnish. The town of Cloverdale is a typical small town; populated with relatively normal people trying to live a good life. Throw in the occasional odd duck and the town is complete. THE PICKLED PIPER is the first in a new series, Pickled & Preserved, and I wait with anticipation for next book. Mary Ellen Hughes has other series, and THE PICKLED PIPER makes me want to go out and track them down.
After her dreams of romance are crushed, Piper Lamb decides to pursue her dream of opening her own shop of pickles and preserves, called Piper’s Picklings, in the idyllic small town of Cloverdale. But she isn’t in town long before she encounters a barrelful of trouble. The Cloverdale fair offers Piper a sweet opportunity to promote her business. With her new assistant, Amy, she sets up a booth centered around an eye-catching display of the ever-popular dills in an old-fashioned barrel of brine. But things soon turn sour when fairgoers witness a fight between Amy’s boyfriend, Nate, and town council blowhard—and bagpipe player—Alan Rosemont. When Rosemont is found floating in Piper’s barrel, Nate becomes the prime murder suspect. With Amy’s boyfriend in a pretty pickle, there’s no time to dillydally. But as Piper searches for the real killer, she needs to be careful to preserve her own life; or she may end up a pickled Piper herself.
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