If you love trees, as I do, and you especially enjoy cider, as I do, you won’t be able to resist this sweet-tasting mystery. Blossom Valley, West Virginia is the setting for APPLE CIDER SLAYING. This is the story of one young lady who decides to go into business on her Granny’s apple orchard, and the support – and the opposition - she faces locally.
Smythe Orchards has a long and creditable history with seasonal varieties of fruits, but Winnie Montgomery discovers that her widowed Granny Smythe has rather a lot of bills and no permanent help. Nadine Cooper, their senior neighbour, comes over one day, in a huff as usual, but before she can get a word in, the tourists Winnie enticed to visit distract everyone, and Winnie doesn’t see Nadine again for a while. When she does, she screams. The lady is lying dead – on the farm premises. Granny Smythe is perhaps a rather unusual suspect, but she doesn’t have much of an alibi and the neighbours weren’t friendly. Winnie decides to find other suspects, despite the police officer warning her to leave the death to his investigating team.
The time of year is just after Thanksgiving so the scented harvest is in, the stores are full and the cider flagons are brimming. Winnie makes spiced ciders for visitors and for herself, and her energy never fails through this adventure. She decides to be a full-fledged businesswoman although she’s only partway through her accounting degree, with a part-time job in the town restaurant, and applies to Mr Sherman for a bank loan. But unexpected vandalism keeps arising, so somebody seems not to want her new cider shop to succeed.
I thoroughly enjoyed Julie Anne Lindsey’s tale of a small business getting established, finding products and gaining custom. Don’t we all love artisan foods and drinks? The community is strong with some people grumpy and some cheerful, just as we’d expect. The issues surrounding town turn out to be bigger than usual – and some issues are also personal. Like Winnie’s ex, Hank Donovan, who walked away to a new job in a new town a year ago, and is unexpectedly back on the scene. Now, what could he want? Lots of people turn out to have motivations that are not immediately obvious, so even though a cosy mystery can sometimes feel formulaic (I’ve probably read too many), I found plenty to keep my interest and I fully intend to return to the Cider Shop Mystery series. APPLE CIDER SLAYING is a winner.
Apples are at the core of the family business run by Winona Mae Montgomery and her Granny Smythe. But this year's crop is unseasonably ripe with murder . . .
ONE ROTTEN APPLE
Blossom Valley, West Virginia, is home to Smythe Orchards, Winnie and her Granny's beloved twenty-five-acre farm and family business. But any way you slice it, it's struggling. That's why they're trying to drum up business with the "First Annual Christmas at the Orchard," a good old-fashioned holiday festival with enough delicious draw to satisfy apple-picking locals and cider-loving tourists alike--until the whole endeavor takes a sour turn when the body of Nadine Cooper, Granny's long-time, grudge-holding nemesis, is found lodged in the apple press. Now, with Granny the number one suspect, Winnie is hard-pressed to prove her innocence before the real killer delivers another murder . . .
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