Deadly to the Core (A Cider House Mystery) by Joyce Tremel
Cozy Mystery1st in Series
Setting - Pennsylvania
Crooked Lane Books (January 16, 2024)
Hardcover : 250 pages
ISBN-10 : 1639105433
ISBN-13 : 978-1639105434
Digital ASIN : B0C2P4QB9T
Perfect for fans of Amanda Flower and Julie Anne Lindsey, when Kate Mulligan inherits her great uncle’s fruit orchard, she quickly realizes that apples aren’t the only thing that can have rotten cores.
After losing her husband in a terrible car crash, thirty-five-year-old Kate is left to pick up the pieces of her life alone. Although she has physically recovered, she worries her spirit never will. But when she learns that she has inherited a fruit orchard in a small town just outside Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, from her great uncle Stan, she takes this as an opportunity ripe for the picking. Kate knew immediately what to do with it: open a cider house. Her hopeful plans fall far from the tree when she finds the body of the orchard manager, Carl Randolph, leaving her to figure out who is at the core of this murder.
She had been in correspondence with Carl, who had agreed with her brilliant idea of opening a cider house. But not everyone is so quick to buy what she was selling—Uncle Stan’s lawyer, Robert Larabee, paints a less rosy financial outlook of the orchard’s past, present, and future.
Kate discovers that Carl had large, unexplained deposits to his bank account and it becomes clear that either he was blackmailing someone, or someone was paying him to keep quiet. Meanwhile, Kate and her neighbors receive offers to buy their property from a mysterious buyer. And there’s more than meets the eye with the neighboring orchard owner, Daniel Martinez, although Kate can’t quite put her finger on if it’s sweet or sour.
Will she be able to pick out the bad apple among the bunch before it’s too late?
My Review:
Deadly to the Core is the first book in the Cider House Mystery series.
Kate Mulligan is back in Orchardville, PA after inheriting an orchard from her late great uncle Stan. Having lost her husband previously, this change comes at a time when Kate is ready to get out of Dodge and start a new chapter in her life. The pain of loss is still at the surface but a new venture running an orchard and cider house will keep her busy, both mind and body. Things really heat up in the orchard when Kate finds the body of her orchard manager, Carl, dead in his cottage.
I really enjoyed Deadly to the Core. I was able to sympathize and empathize with Kate as she navigated the start of this new life with the pain of past events. She's a strong character and the author created and developed her well. I enjoyed the descriptive content and world building. The book begins a little slowly as the author builds up the story, at first books in a series tend to do, but really takes off after the death of Carl.
I'm excited to see where the author takes Kate next.
I was provided a copy of this book.
My Rating:
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