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Overview
A small-town B&B owner gets more than she bargained for in this first installment of a Southern cozy mystery series that's as sweet as a Georgia peach What's black and white and dead all over? Georgia bed and breakfast proprietor Nina Fleet finds out when she comes across a corpse in a penguin costume . . . Nina Fleet's life ought to be as sweet as a Georgia peach. Awarded a tidy sum in her divorce, Nina retired at 41 to a historic Queen Anne house in quaint Cymbeline, Georgia. But Nina's barely settled into her new B&B-to-be when a penguin shows up on her porch. Or, at least, a man wearing a penguin suit. Harry Westcott is making ends meet as an ice cream shop's mascot and has a letter from his great-aunt, pledging to leave him the house. Too bad that's not what her will says. Meanwhile, the Sisters of Perpetual Poverty have lost their lease. Real estate developer Gregory Bainbridge intends to turn the convent into a golfing community, so Cymbeline's mayor persuades Nina to take in the elderly nuns. And then Nina finds the "penguin" again, this time lying in an alley with a kitchen knife in his chest. A peek under the beak tells Nina it's not Harry inside the costume, but Bainbridge. What was he doing in Harry's penguin suit? Was the developer really the intended victim, or did the culprit mean to kill Harry? Whoever is out to stop Harry from contesting the sale of his great-aunt's house may also be after Nina, so she teams up with him to cage the killer before someone clips her wings in Peach Clobbered, Anna Gerard's charming first Georgia B&B mystery.
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Details
- ISBN-13: 9781643850061
- ISBN-10: 1643850067
- Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
- Publish Date: July 2019
- Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
- Shipping Weight: 0.85 pounds
- Page Count: 320
BookPage® Reviews
Cozies: July 2019
Starred review
The English village of Finch has been beset by an ice storm instead of the usual picture-perfect Christmas snow, but Lori Shepherd insists on a bit of cheer by making a run to dear friend Emma’s annual party. While she’s there, a car hits the ice and lands in a ditch outside. They invite the frazzled driver, Matilda “Tilly” Trout, inside, where she is able to answer a question that has long puzzled Emma—the odd-looking room in Emma’s home is a former Roman Catholic chapel. Lori, Emma and company find a compartment inside the chapel that contains actual treasure, but how did it get there? There are no murders to solve in Aunt Dimity and the Heart of Gold, just a story in need of unraveling. Nancy Atherton’s series finds kindness and human connection in frosty times, and the good hearts of Finch will warm yours.
If practiced well, the oft-maligned art of gossip can unearth as much evidence as a CSI team. Just ask the Countess of Harleigh, back for a second turn in A Lady’s Guide to Gossip and Murder. The American transplant has found her footing amid England’s upper crust. She’s looking forward to a quiet end to summer until a friend, Mary Archer, is found murdered and Lady Harleigh’s own cousin is questioned. A romantic subplot or two don’t slow the hunt for Mary’s killer, which may involve a blackmail scheme and thus an ever-expanding suspect pool. After all, gossip is well and good until it’s about you. Author Dianne Freeman handles class disparity with care and has created a world that readers will want to explore in more depth as the series continues.
Anna Gerard’s Peach Clobbered introduces Nina Fleet, new to Cymbeline, Georgia, and tentatively converting her gorgeous home into a B&B. Harry Westcott claims the house as his rightful inheritance, though he may have hurt his credibility a bit by showing up to argue his case in a penguin suit, then collapsing with heatstroke. Next thing you know, half a dozen displaced nuns are living chez Nina, and someone wearing the same penguin suit has been murdered. Nina, the sisters and Harry try to solve the crime, but what happened is far from black and white. Nina is a spirited lead, and the town is full of supporting characters that add to the mosaic of Cymbeline. Peach Clobbered is a perfect armchair vacation of a book.
