Doing It at the Dixie Dew--A Mystery

March 17, 2014
Moose’s delightful first cozy, winner of the Malice Domestic Competition for Best First Traditional Mystery Novel, stars Beth McKenzie, who returns to her hometown of Littleboro, N.C., to open the Dixie Dew Bed-and-Breakfast. Her first night in business, Beth is dismayed to find 80-plus-year-old Lavinia Lovingood lying dead on the floor of Miss Lavinia’s locked room. Beth is even more alarmed when the death is ruled a homicide, and she knows that Littleboro’s police chief, Oswald DelGardo, has no experience with murder investigations. If she’s going to save the Dixie Dew, she’ll have to find out who wanted her elderly guest dead, and sets out to do just that with the help of her best friend, Malinda Jones, and her hunky handyman, Scott Smith. After the discovery of a second murder victim, Beth herself becomes a target. Little old ladies in gloves and hats, financial shenanigans, a large rabbit, and the fishbowl life of a small town add to the fun.

April 15, 2014
In this winner of the 2013 Malice Domestic Competition for Best First Traditional Mystery Novel, Beth McKenzie returns to small-town Littleboro, North Carolina, after her grandmother Mama Alice is found gravely injured at the foot of the basement stairs. After lingering for a few months, Mama Alice dies, leaving her dilapidated mansion to Beth. Unable to sell the home, Beth decides to turn it into a bed and breakfast. Unfortunately, one of her first guests, elderly Miss Lavinia Lovingood, who has returned home to Littleboro after a life spent in Italy, dies in the Azalea Room. It turns out Miss Lavinia was murdered, and when the local priest is also murdered, the seemingly inept police chief Ossie Delbardo likes Beth for the perpetrator. Beth, along with her friend Malinda, investigates, both getting trapped by the killer but ultimately solving the crimes. Quirky characters, the beginnings of a romance, and the southern setting add to a story that will appeal to fans of Mary Daheim's Bed-and-Breakfast mysteries and Sarah Graves' Home Repair Is Homicide series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)