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In Paige Shelton’s 4th book in The Farmers’ Market Mystery series, A Killer Maize, jam-maker Becca Robbins heads to the Swayton County Fall Festival to sell her jams beside carnival rides and corn dog vendors.
The fair has less than stellar turn-out and rickety rides, but that’s not the worst of it. Becca’s second ex-husband is there, running the shooting gallery. That’s makes for some deliciously tasty backstory smeared across Becca’s already complicated love life.
But the worst happens when the ferris wheel operator, Virgil is found dead. Whispers of gypsy magic surround the festival and the murder.
Becca begins to wonder if her ex-husband might be keeping more secrets than he did during their marriage.
Ms. Shelton does a fantastic job re-creating the sights, smells, and sounds of a local county fair. Made me long for my town’s fair next summer.
Each new character was introduced with such telling details, they came to life in my mind.
I must confess I wasn’t quite sure who the killer was or why until the very end. Thanks, Paige. I love a good, well-plotted mystery.
Paige’s writing is very clean and makes for a very quick, smooth read. Reminded me of a nice sake. You forget you’re drinking it and just enjoy its effects.
I loved learning more about Becca and watching her love life evolve further. This is my favorite part of a series: coming back to characters I love.
After this book, let’s just say I will never ever set foot in a corn maize. 
You can pick up a copy on Amazon or Barnes and Noble.
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And for everyone that participated in Wednesday’s poll–a big thank you!!! Excellent advice! Special thanks to Marc and JM for their terrific insight into how #1 & #2 could be melded together.
And drumroll please….(humor me–tap on your desk)
When Kai’s telepathy spirals out of control, her husband Oliver brings her to the quiet hometown he abandoned a decade ago, where he must confront the secrets of his past to save their future.
I just returned from my second trip to the quirky midwest town of Broken Rope, Missouri, in If Mashed Potatoes Could Dance. Paige Shelton‘s second book in the Country Cooking School Mystery series is a fast, fun read with a difficult double mystery to solve.
Betts and Grams are roped into hosting a busload of foodies for an impromptu cooking lesson and sleepover. All is going well, until two of the foodies go missing and one turns up dead with a broken rope around his neck. (BTW I had no idea who was behind the foodie murder and kidnapping until the very last pages of the book.)
Betts is plunged into this murder/kidnapping after her best friend, Jake, discovers the dead body.
But the problems of the present aren’t the only ones Betts faces.
The ghost of Sally Swarthmore, Broken Rope’s notorious ax murderer, entreats Betts and Grams to help her discover if she is guilty of killing her parents.
Sally is an intriguing character whose true story begs to be told. I’m a sucker for ghost stories and I love love love this element of Ms. Shelton’s mystery. You want to believe in Sally’s innocence despite her guilty verdict in life.
Betts and Jake are a crime solving duo I’d be thrilled to join. I love tagging along while they put the pieces together.
I’m dying to try the potato recipes in the back of the book too!
I can’t wait for book 3 to learn more about Betts’ abilities with ghosts and spend more time with the colorful characters of Broken Rope, Missouri!
Many thanks to my blog and Twitter followers who participated. You’ve got awesome blogs and I enjoy reading all your posts!
Drumroll please…
We have a winner of the personalized autographed copy of Paige Shelton’s If Fried Chicken Could Fly.
Huge Congrats go to:
TheMadGayMan
I’m going to shoot you an email with all the details this afternoon (look for an email from kourtney.heintz@yahoo.com), but just wanted you to start thinking about how you want the autograph personalized.
Thanks for participating!
I’m hoping to have a few more contests throughout the year. So if you didn’t win this time, there will be a next time. I promise.
Paige Shelton’s If Fried Chicken Could Fly is a delicious romp in the former wild west town of Broken Rope, Missouri, with a cast of absolutely engaging characters that you are dying to spend another book with. I’d jump in my car and roadtrip to Ms. Shelton’s Broken Rope any day.
From the back cover: “Isabelle ‘Betts’ Winston loves teaching the secrets of mouthwatering country food in her hometown, Broken Rope, Missouri–famous for its past of outlaws, knife battles, and hangings. But now an all-too-current murder threatens the start of the tourist season…”
I love how Ms. Shelton took a traditional mystery, tossed in cowboys, missing gold, and a modern day treasure hunt and then added an unconventional pinch of attraction between Betts and the ghost. Blended it to the tastiest treat.
I had no idea who the killer was until the end. Luckily, Ms. Shelton crafted a fast-paced mystery that I devoured in three nights so the wait was bearable.
All the characters are 3-D. I especially enjoyed Betts’ unconventional grandma, Grams/Missouri. She is a pip whether lecturing Betts on how to deal with seeing ghosts, stuck in a cell for a murder she didn’t commit, or dodging Bett’s questions about the treasure hunt that may have led to murder.
There are also several recipes from Ms. Shelton at the back of the book. I’m trying out her fake fried chicken this week.
If you like a dash of paranormal in your mystery, this is a not to be missed read!
I liked it so much, I asked Ms. Shelton if I could give away an autographed copy here. And she said YES!
ONTO THE FREE BOOK CONTEST…
The prize: A free personally autographed copy of If Fried Chicken Could Fly by Paige Shelton, a New York Times Bestselling Author and National Bestselling Author.
Contest rules:
1) You must have a U.S. mailing address to enter the contest. Any new and existing blog and/or Twitter followers can enter.
2) Follow my blog (Kourtney Heintz’ Journal) for one point.
3) Follow me on Twitter (@kourhei) for one point.
4) To enter, comment below telling me your total points and the names/handle you follow me under. Make sure to include your email address in the comment so I can notify you if you win. (Note: You get one entry for each point.)
5) Enter by Thursday February 23 at 7 AM EST. That’s 48 hours from when this post goes live. Then the contest closes to submissions.
I will randomly select a winner. The winner will be notified via email and announced on Friday’s blog.
Good luck!
Crops and Robbers, Paige Shelton’s third book in the Farmers’ Market Mystery series, is a rollicking return to my favorite town of Monson, South Carolina. By now, the vendors at Bailey’s Farmers’ Market are like old friends I love catching up with.
The first two books in the series had Becca Robins investigating murders that affected her friends. But when her hippie RV living parents come for a visit, this murder mystery hits home in the worst way.
After being snubbed by the Central South Carolina Restaurant Association President, Becca returns to her farm to find her barn broken into and a knife plunged into the chest of the very same very dead president. Worse still, her mom appears in the doorway with blood on her hands.
Sam, Becca’s friend and a police officer, has to take her mother into custody. Bail is denied and things aren’t looking good for Mama Robins.
Becca and her straight laced fraternal twin sister, Allison, refuse to sit around and wait for the police to clear their mom. Becca goes so far as to recruit her boyfriend, Ian, to help her sneak and snoop.
My laugh out loud moments?
When Becca is trying to help chase a rowdy rat out of the kitchen and ends up being called “the rat whisperer.”
The Pee-Wee Herman-esque arrival of the defense attorney, Aldous.
The identity of the murderer and the motive for the murder remain a mystery for most of the book. It isn’t until the end that a few clear suspects come to the forefront. And even then, the truth doesn’t unravel until the absolute end. This is the kind of mystery I love, where I can’t figure out the ending on my own.
Ms. Shelton does a phenomenal job with setting, weaving in Becca’s strawberry and pumpkin patches and Ian’s soon to be lavender fields. I love how she sets the scene and immerses the reader in it so that I can feel the prickly pumpkin leaves and see which onions are ready for harvesting. Fabulous writing!
I enjoyed each and every character in Ms. Shelton’s book. All were well drawn and quirky enough to be memorable but still remained three-dimensional characters.
Hobbit is my favorite canine character ever. I wish I could hang out with her for a week.
The recipes included at the end of the book are mouth-watering good. I’m really interested in trying out Bo’s Snickerdoodles.
I love love love the triangle coalescing between Becca, her boyfriend Ian, and her good friend Sam. What a cliffhanger ending there.
I’ll be counting the days until the fourth book!
You can order a copy of Crops and Robbers here.
You can find out more about Paige Shelton and her books on her website here.
Thanks to all the participants in my first blog contest! Everyone who answered the four questions correctly was entered into the contest. I put the email addresses in a hat and drew one.
And the lucky winner is: Stacie Amelotte/scouts579@aol.com.
Stacie, Paige Shelton will email you to follow up with you on whether you want the autograph personalized and your mailing address. If you don’t receive the email, shoot me an email at: kourtney.heintz@yahoo.com.
Congrats! Hope you love the book as much as I do.
Your chance to win a free autographed copy of Paige Shelton’s Fruit of All Evil ends at 11:59 PM EST tonight.
This is one of my favorite cozy mystery series by an author who can have me chopping my nails in anxiety and giggling like a five-year old.
To enter to win, check out Paige’s blog where she’s hidden answers to my little blog quiz.
Then go to my blog contest page and comment with the answers to the 4 questions.
Best of luck! I’ll announce the winner on Thursday’s blog.
In honor of this week’s blog contest (click here for contest info) where you can win a free autographed copy of Paige Shelton’s Fruit of All Evil, I decided to repost my review of her book. Just so you’d know what a great prize this is.
The best Christmas present I got (excluding the Ipad from Mom)?
The ARC for Paige Shelton’s second book in the Farmers’ Market Mystery series, Fruit of All Evil.
Ms. Shelton does it again with a deliciously good twist. There are enough possible suspects and a variety of clues that leave you uncertain over who the murderer is until the protagonist begins putting the pieces together in the last 40 pages.
The protagonist, Becca Robins is a quirky, true-to-life character. I wish I could set up a stall next to her at the farmers’ market.
I love how believably Becca becomes entangled in what should be police business. Her amateur sleuth foibles are hilarious. Laugh out loud moments included: the cat-in-the-hen-house and the ledge-climbing. Ms. Shelton does an excellent job bringing the reader along with Becca on all her escapades to the point where I held my breath out there on the ledge with Becca.
The other members of the farmers’ market are all well-rounded and endearing, from the curmudgeony Abner to the super-efficient Allison. The setting is always well done, I can picture Linda’s gingerbread house and Drew’s culinary masterpiece of a kitchen. I am not a fan of setting, but it’s worked in and done so well, I scarcely realized I’d read those paragraphs until the image of the place fills my mind.
The plot moves quickly and the transitions are seamless. Every scene builds on the one before it.
The voice is captivating and I can’t imagine anyone not liking Becca. Especially as she tackles the job of “Number One” (maid of honor) to her friend Linda.
And the recipes at the back sound scrumptious.
Dying to get your hands on a copy?
You can enter my contest to win a free autographed copy or order it from Amazon.
I can’t wait for the next book in the series so that I can return to the town of Monson!
In honor of one of my fav authors having a new release in March, I decided to have my first blog contest ever.
The prize:
An autographed copy of Fruit of All Evil by Paige Shelton.
The rules are simple:
- Comment below with your responses to my questions and your email address.
- If you want to keep your answers private, comment below with your email address and email me your answers at: kourtney.heintz@yahoo.com.
- If you answer all 4 questions correctly, you are entered to win a free copy of Fruit of All Evil signed by Paige Shelton. (Ms. Shelton has graciously donated a signed copy).
- Hint: Answers to all 4 questions can be found on Paige Shelton’s blog and this blog.
- The winner will be randomly selected from the correct entries.
- The contest ends on March 21, 2011 at 11:59 PM EST.
- You have 7 days to find the answers and comment. (If you’re good with a blog search function, this should take 10 minutes max)
- The winner is notified within 3 days via an update in the comments below and an email from yours truly.
- Note: This contest is only open to people living in the continental U.S.
And now…
The Contest Questions:
1) What is the ingredient in the cookie recipe in Fruit of All Evil that Paige had never worked with before?
2) What tattoo did Paige consider getting after reaching the NYT Bestseller List for the first time in 2010?
3) What was the best Christmas present I received in 2010 (excluding my Ipad)?
4) How does Becca refer to her job as maid of honor in Fruit of All Evil?
The best Christmas present I got (excluding the Ipad from Mom)?
The ARC for Paige Shelton’s second book in the Farmers’ Market Mystery series, Fruit of All Evil.
Ms. Shelton does it again with a deliciously good twist. There are enough possible suspects and a variety of clues that leave you uncertain over who the murderer is until the protagonist begins putting the pieces together in the last 40 pages.
The protagonist, Becca Robins is a quirky, true-to-life character. I wish I could set up a stall next to her at the farmers’ market.
I love how believably Becca becomes entangled in what should be police business. Her amateur sleuth foibles are hilarious. Laugh out loud moments included: the cat-in-the-hen-house and the ledge-climbing. Ms. Shelton does an excellent job bringing the reader along with Becca on all her escapades to the point where I held my breath out there on the ledge with Becca.
The other members of the farmers’ market are all well-rounded and endearing, from the curmudgeony Abner to the super-efficient Allison. The setting is always well done, I can picture Linda’s gingerbread house and Drew’s culinary masterpiece of a kitchen. I am not a fan of setting, but it’s worked in and done so well, I scarcely realized I’d read those paragraphs until the image of the place fills my mind.
The plot moves quickly and the transitions are seamless. Every scene builds on the one before it.
The voice is captivating and I can’t imagine anyone not liking Becca. Especially as she tackles the job of “Number One” (maid of honor) to her friend Linda.
And the recipes at the back sound scrumptious.
Dying to get your hands on a copy?
The book will be on sale from Berkley Prime Crime come March 2011. You can pre-order it here on Amazon.
I can’t wait for the next book in the series so that I can return to the town of Monson!
