Leave Tomorrow Behind

September 30, 2013
In Clemens’s heartfelt fifth Stella Crowne mystery (after 2008’s Different Paths), the Pennsylvania dairy farmer has her hands full at the county fair, between mentoring her teen employee, Zach, and supporting her veterinarian friend, Carla Beaumont, who’s in charge of making sure nothing’s amiss with the fair animals. Stella’s unfortunate discovery of the body of Rikki Raines, local country music star, lying dead under a pile of manure, leads to confrontations with the police and with reporters on behalf of herself and her friends, making her suddenly aware of the cheating and bad behavior going on in both the animal and pageant competitions. Meanwhile, she’s fighting with her fiancé Nick’s sister, Miranda, who wants her out of jeans and into fancy catering halls for the wedding Stella has no interest in planning. Clemens creates a cozy, safe-feeling community that needs a fierce defender like Stella to protect it from the bad eggs, and readers will love her determination to make things right while letting everyone live the way he or she desires.

November 1, 2013
A folksy fair turned deadly forces an unconventional dairy farmer to solve more than just a murder to save the day. Planning a wedding is what most girls dream of, but dairy farmer Stella Crown isn't most girls. She's much more involved with helping young proteges like her employee Zach make a good showing at the 4-H competition at the county fair. Stella leaves the wedding planning to Miranda, her future sister-in-law, who's happy to help even if she isn't too impressed by Stella as her brother Nick's intended. Although Stella loves Nick with all her heart, Miranda's convinced that Stella is only after the family money, a theory that appears to be increasingly supported by Stella's ongoing financial hardships. Stella's hopes that the 4-H competition can take her mind off the trouble on the homefront are thwarted when the Gregg family enters the fray. Known for buying their wins in the calf competition, the Greggs are prepared to do whatever it takes to get the top prize, and Zach knows that he doesn't stand a chance despite his hard work. Soon after Stella, Nick and their friends try to take their minds off the situation by spending the evening listening to new country singer Rikki Raines, they find the young singer's dead body. Stella wants to get to the bottom of things, partly since she wants to relieve herself of potential blame and partly due to the fact that, for an amateur sleuth, she isn't half bad. Unfortunately, the intended wit and quirkiness with which Clemens (Flowers for Her Grave, 2011, etc.) attempts to endow her characters often misses the mark, leaving Stella less interesting than she's supposed to be.

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November 1, 2013

After a five-year break, the Harley-riding, suffer-no-fools dairy farmer returns in her sixth outing (after Different Paths). Her wedding plans go on hiatus when a dead country singer turns up in the county fair stables.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2013
Clemens returns to the adventures of dairy farmer, biker, and amateur sleuth Stella Crowne. This time Stella is helping her teenage employee show a calf in a fair and dealing with her fianc' Nick's wedding-planning sister, Miranda. The politics of the fair are proving annoying, but when Molly finds a dead body in the manure track, she is jolted out of her own troubles and into everyone's business as she attempts to unearth clues. Stella's irascible manner and straightforward approach make her out of the ordinary among the many more mild-mannered amateur sleuths. Clemens will win new readers with this multifaceted crime caper, which makes the most of the 4-H setting, in which the teen competitors behave much better than the adults around them. Farm mysteries, including those by B. B. Haywood, are gaining in popularity among cozy fans, and this series is one of the best in the growing subgenre. Fans of Ann Jaffarian's Ophelia Grey will also enjoy Stella's no-nonsense approach to crime-solving.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)