A MURDER FOR THE SAGES

A suspicious death sets a town buzzing. Was it accident or murder?

Sissy Yoder’s been working in her aunt Bethel’s cafe in the mostly Amish town of Yoder, Kansas, while Bethel recovers from a broken leg. She enjoys being away from her mother, who moved the family to Tulsa after leaving the Amish community, and who constantly complains that Sissy’s not using her journalism degree and compares Sissy to her brother, a medical student. In fact, Sissy has some secrets of her own. She does very well financially, writing an anonymous agony aunt column for the local paper. And her best friend, geeky reporter Gavin Wainwright, may have a romantic interest in her. Since her arrival in the tiny house she shares with her dog, Duke, Sissy’s been involved in solving so many murders that it’s only natural she wonders how herb farmer Ginger Reed could’ve been run over by her own tractor. Several locals suspect Randy Williams, who just got out of prison, but the incompetent deputy sheriff Earl Berry is quick to pronounce it an accident. Unable to ignore Ginger’s death, Sissy starts sleuthing with some surprising help from her aunt and Ginger’s friend Naomi. Ginger had been fighting with her neighbor over a land disagreement and with her own brother over money. Could either of these disputes have provided a motive for murder? With Gavin by her side, Sissy continues to investigate, putting them all in danger from a desperate killer.

Plenty to enjoy here, though family angst and romance overshadow the mystery.