Deadly to the Core (A Cider House Mystery)
by Joyce Tremel
About Deadly to the Core
Deadly to the Core (A Cider House Mystery)
Perfect for fans of Amanda Flower and Julie Anne Lindsey, when Kate Mulligan inherits her great uncle’s fruit orchard, she quickly realizes that apples aren’t the only thing that can have rotten cores.
After losing her husband in a terrible car crash, thirty-five-year-old Kate is left to pick up the pieces of her life alone. Although she has physically recovered, she worries her spirit never will. But when she learns that she has inherited a fruit orchard in a small town just outside Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, from her great uncle Stan, she takes this as an opportunity ripe for the picking. Kate knew immediately what to do with it: open a cider house. Her hopeful plans fall far from the tree when she finds the body of the orchard manager, Carl Randolph, leaving her to figure out who is at the core of this murder.
She had been in correspondence with Carl, who had agreed with her brilliant idea of opening a cider house. But not everyone is so quick to buy what she was selling—Uncle Stan’s lawyer, Robert Larabee, paints a less rosy financial outlook of the orchard’s past, present, and future.
Kate discovers that Carl had large, unexplained deposits to his bank account and it becomes clear that either he was blackmailing someone, or someone was paying him to keep quiet. Meanwhile, Kate and her neighbors receive offers to buy their property from a mysterious buyer. And there’s more than meets the eye with the neighboring orchard owner, Daniel Martinez, although Kate can’t quite put her finger on if it’s sweet or sour.
Will she be able to pick out the bad apple among the bunch before it’s too late?
What I Thought:
This is the first installment in the Cider House Mystery Series. I enjoyed this cozy. I liked the setting and the characters were all likable. In this one, Kate has moved to Orchardville, PA, to take over her uncle's orchard after recovering from a devastating accident that claimed the life of her husband. Kate has plans to open a Cider House in the old barn. Her uncle's orchard manager, Carl has started the renovations on the barn. When Kate finds Carl's dead body, she has to uncover some shady dealings to solve the crime. I thought this story flowed well and was a fast read. My attention was held from the very beginning of the book. I thought the plot was well thought out. There were several suspects and a lot of people in town had a lot of secrets, so there were many twists and turns that kept me guessing to the very end. I look forward to more in this series as I am anxious to see how Kate makes out with her Cider House.
I received a complimentary copy of this book.
About Joyce Tremel
Joyce Tremel was a police secretary for ten years and more than once envisioned the demise of certain co-workers, but settled on writing as a way to keep herself out of jail. In addition to the Cider House Mysteries, she wrote the Brewing Trouble Mysteries. As Joyce St. Anthony, she writes the Homefront News historical mysteries. She lives in the beautiful Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania with her husband and two cats named Hops and Lager.
Author Links Website www.joycetremel.com Facebook www.facebook.com/JoyceTremel X/Twitter www.twitter.com/JoyceTremel GoodReads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13746162.Joyce_Tremel Purchase Links - Amazon - B&N - Kobo - Bookshop.org - PenguinRandomHouse
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