Deadly to the Core (A Cider House Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – Pennsylvania
Crooked Lane Books (January 16, 2024)
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 250 pages

 

Synopsis

 

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?

 

 

 

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Guest Post

 

Hi, everyone. I’m Kate Mulligan. I’m not sure why anyone wants to hear from me, but here goes. I just moved to Orchardville, Pennsylvania from Pittsburgh. For some reason, my great-uncle Stan willed me his orchard. I’m glad he did, though. I needed something new—something to look forward to. It’s been a terrible year for me. You see, my husband Brian and I were in a car accident and he was killed. I made it through although I’m put together with a good bit of titanium. I’m on the mend, but I miss my husband with all my heart. I’m happy I have something to focus on now.

Before the accident, I managed a cidery in Pittsburgh. Brian and I had dreamed of opening our own someday and now with the orchard, I’ll be able to do just that. I’d spent summers with my grandmother and Uncle Stan. There was an old barn on the property that with the help of my orchard manager Carl Randolph and some local people, has been restored. It’s ready for the fermentation tanks to arrive any day now.

I can’t forget to mention my friend Marguerite Yost. She owns the café in town. Back when I used to spend the summers at Grandma’s house, we were inseparable. We kept in touch some over the years, but it wasn’t the same. It’s good to have a friend. The people in Orchardville are so nice. Rudy, who owns the grocery store wouldn’t even let me pay for groceries on my first trip. He and his wife Ruth were good friends with Grandma and Uncle Stan. Daniel Martinez, the neighboring orchard owner, has been great, too. He even made me save his number in my phone contacts in case I needed anything. Not that I’ll ever use it, of course.

Right now I’m heading to Carl’s cabin in the orchard. He’s going to give me my first lesson on fruit trees and owning an orchard. I don’t know a thing about it, but I’m anxious to learn it all. I can see his cabin from here and it looks like the front door is open. And I hear music blasting from inside. I hope everything is all right…

 

 

About the Author

 

Joyce St. Anthony 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 Homefront News Mysteries, she is the author of the Brewing Trouble Mysteries and the upcoming Cider House Mysteries, written under her own name, Joyce Tremel. She lives in the beautiful Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania with her husband.

 

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