Genre: Mystery
Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book; Audiobook
ISBN #: 9780425278383
Berkley Publishing
266 Pages
$7.52; $2.99 Amazon
July 7, 2015
⭐⭐⭐
To help run the family peach farm during her parents' absence, Nola Mae Harper returns to her childhood home of Cay Mill, Georgia, and soon discovers that things back at the farm aren't exactly peachy. A poor harvest and rising costs are threatening to ruin the Harpers' livelihood, and small-town gossip is spreading like blight thanks to Nola's juicy reputation as a wild teenager way back when. But Nola really finds herself in the pits when she stumbles upon a local businessman murdered among the peach trees.
With suspicions and family tensions heating up faster than a cobbler in the oven, this sweet Georgia peach will have to prune through a list of murder suspects -- before she too becomes ripe for the killer's picking...
✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽
Nola Mae Harper has been away from home for fifteen years. She's come back to visit occasionally, but never stayed long. After her boss downgraded her job to a different position, she's not happy. But it's her parents fiftieth wedding anniversary, and she's come to stay for the party and take care of the family peach farm while they're on a cruise.
What she finds when she returns is that the farm isn't in as good shape as she thought. There's the mower that needs to be fixed, irrigation lines need to get running, and then there's the dead body leaning against a peach tree in the grove...
When it's discovered that he's a customer at the bank that her brother-in-law Hollis is president of, and that there's been problems with the man's lumber mill, and also that he was seen arguing with Hollis, there's a bigger problem. Especially since no one knows where Hollis is, and her sister Ida is about to give birth. Now Nola has to figure out how to get the farm running again, keep Hollis out of jail, and keep her thoughts from her old friend Cade, who seems to have changed through the years, and for the better...
To be honest, I really liked the beginning of this book. It started off well and kept me interested in watching how Nola was going to get the farm up and running again. I liked the idea that the people in this small town welcomes her back home (most of them, anyway), and that she was able to do things on her own, including caring for her older sister, who needed her. I enjoyed the fact that she'd lived the life she did, learning how to stand up and do things, which helped her in the projects she needed to fix to get the farm running. I also liked Joe and how he bartered to get things done, it seemed that this is a good form for a lot of people to get through life, and it's nothing to sneeze at.
I did like the way she'd decided on searching for the real killer, but I sure don't hope that Maudy turns out to be one of those sheriffs that want to pin things on people just because she doesn't like them. That would ruin the small series that it is, completely.
What I didn't care for was the ending, and that's why I gave it three stars instead of five. It left too much unsaid, too many things hanging in the wind. I will place them in a spoiler below so that those who've never read the book don't have it ruined for them:
Because of what's in the spoiler, I felt that I couldn't enjoy the ending, and because the murderer wasn't much of a surprise, I was so let down that I don't think I'll even read the rest of the series. Sorry.
https://www.amazon.com/Peaches-Scream-Georgia-Peach-Mystery/dp/0425278387/ref
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3512526273
More on Susan Furlong's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/f/susan-furlong/
No comments:
Post a Comment