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.
Glad the Poll worked out! 🙂
Thanks for participating! Lots of fantastic ideas and thoughts flowed in the comments. 🙂
Glad you’ve found your blurb! And as for the book review–sounds good. And now I want some funnel cake and cotton candy. 🙂
Me too! 🙂 And I’m so glad I have such terrific writers as blog buddies. Totally helped me tweak and refine it. 🙂 LOL. And a corn dog. 🙂
Really like the comparison to drinking sake…….I totally get it 🙂
Thanks! This is an instance of real life trickling into my writing. I just had a delicious sake in NY last week. It tasted of coconut and vanilla bean. So smooth. 🙂
I love the one-sentence hook! And the book review. 😉 And I can’t wait until yours is available, too!
Thanks JM! And thank you so much for your insightful comments and well-thought-out feedback. It’s a fun cozy to read. *Blushes* thank you so much!!!!
If the book is half as entertaining as your review… I’m sold anyway… just need to get a new smartphone so I can download it. And, I love the new & improved hook. Well done 🙂
I’m so delighted you liked the review! The book is really a fun read. Thanks! I really liked the idea of combining 1&2 and tweaking them. 🙂
Another great review Kourtney. Sounds like the kind of book my wife enjoys so I might have to check it out.
Glad to participate in your poll. We’re here to help 😉
Thanks Pete. Hope your wife enjoys it. 🙂 Thank you so much! It was sooooo helpful to get feedback from such an awesome writer. 🙂
Nice concise book review. Love the hook!
Thanks. I try to keep them short while highlighting the best parts of the book. Thanks! 🙂 I’m really happy with it. And I’m planning to use #3 and #4 in marketing stuff. Just not the hook sentence. 😉
I’m reviewing a book in my next post and follow the same guidelines.
Glad to hear #3 and #4 will be used, too.
I like to set word count limits on most of my blog posts–it helps me say more with less. 😉 Yes. Actually #3 was and still is part of the back cover blurb. 😉
Saying more with less is what I love about your blog. When I’m scrolling through my reader, I’m naturally drawn to the shorter posts, so it’s a model I try to follow as well – I aim for a cap of 350. If I go over, I look back at what I can cut. It’s a great exercise in tightening up my writing.
Now if I could only do the same for my abs… 😀
Thanks Gwen! Me too. I figure if I posted once a week 1k is fine. but since I post 3x a week, I aim for shorter. My only exception is the guest Q&As. It would be very very hard to keep them under 1k.
I find writing to a word count is easier. Even in my novels. My first was 120K and YA. Eeek. The next book I decided would be 80k and I stayed to 80k. It kept me focused as I wrote. Sure there were still tons of revisions but at least I didn’t have to hack away half a book. 😉
Seriously. 😛
Oooh it’s nice when you don’t see the ending coming 🙂 Good review!
Thanks Christy! In a mystery, I hate when I’ve figured it out too early on. I like when I have a pool of suspects I keep until the last few pages. 🙂
I love your revised pitch. They’re devils, aren’t they? But you got a lot of great help through the poll, which is awesome.
The book sounds neat, great review.
Thanks Kathryn. I loved the opening of the first one but I realized there was an echo of saved in the opening and closing. It irked me so I decided two presented more information and just required some tweaking of stuff from #1. 😉 The poll was amazing! The votes helped and the comments were terrific. Very very helpful. 🙂
I love a nice cozy mystery. They are fun quick reads. Paige’s plotting and writing take it to the next level too. 🙂
Nothing’s better than a well written plot that keeps you guessing.
(and drum roll….) Like the revision. (and now you have a few bonus blurbs to use as needed. YEA!)
I agree–especially in a mystery. 🙂 Thanks! LOL. Exactly. Little teasers for twitter and marketing materials. 🙂 The funny thing was that combining one and two created a bad echo and forced me to revert more to two than one. Every tweak causes a domino effect. But I really like how it turned out.