Red Delicious Death
Series: An Orchard Mystery Book #3
Author: Sheila Connolly
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Page Count: 304
My Rating:
Book Summary
In this latest Orchard mystery, amateur sleuth Meg Corey takes a bite out of crime…
Some baby-faced chefs, fresh out of cooking school, are looking to open a restaurant in Granford. They plan on using local foods-great news for city girl banker-turned orchard owner Meg Corey. Yet when one of the chefs is found dead, face-down in a farmer’s pig wallow, plans come to a screeching halt. And Meg soon discovers they may have a locally grown killer on their hands.
More Facts for Readers about our Sleuth:
Main Sleuth: Meg Corey
Age: 35
Physical Description: White female, Brunette, Brown eyes, family from Massachusetts
Business: Apple Orchard owner (formerly in banking)
Country: Granford, Massachusetts (moved from Boston)
Time of Year: July-September
Pet: Lavinia “Lolly”, rescued cat, a tabby with white tummy and paws
Love Interest: Seth Chapin, a white male plumber, blond, hazel eyes
Family: A mother who we haven’t met yet because she lives further away
Diversity? Yes! We still have the amazing orchard manager Bree who is of Jamaican descent. Her family had come to the area a few generations ago as apple pickers, stayed, and now a few generations later she is an American of Jamaican ancestry. Bree is an almost graduate from the nearby university and has been hired on as the apple orchard manager, and she is currently living with our sleuth Meg Corey. In the third book we’ve met even more Jamaican characters who are just returning to the orchard in time for picking season. I think they’ll develop as characters even more in the fourth book.
My Review
A juicy third addition, “Red Delicious Death” is book 3 in the Orchard Mystery series by Sheila Connolly. And wouldn’t you know it? With encouragement from our main sleuth Meg, a nice, twenty-something couple and their friend Seth (all from Boston) have bought a house on main street in Granford where they intend to open a restaurant. Meg is busy getting the orchard ready for the picking season but she’s keen to help them since they’re all in it together when it comes to reviving Granford. But when Seth turns up dead in a pigsty with no other clues than a footprint it threatens not only all of their progress, but begs the question of whyyy? And who?
Wow! So folks aren’t kidding in the other reviews I’ve read – you learn A LOT about the orchard business in these books and especially in this third book – but I’m not mad at it. There are times when the mystery seems to take a back seat but the business details are important for setting up future books in the series and making the whole story line feasible. Normally we’re given so many suspects and clues in cozy mysteries that we’re all over the place trying to figure out but this books gives us one clue and not more than a handful of folks to consider – and still – I was guessing to the end. I actually found the culprit and the motive unnerving and eerie in an altogether new way than I’m used to.
I’m pleased that our main sleuth’s love life is picking up! I like a little PDA in my cozy reads. As always I love Sheila’s writing style and the flow of her writing, and I feel like I learn something in her books. As a business owner myself I appreciate the thoroughness of her world creation and I see how it will help sustain the several other books in this series. I’m looking forward to book 4.