Sinopsis

The produce is local--and so is the crime--when long-simmering tensions lead to murder following a festive dinner on Cam Flaherty's farm. It'll take a sleuth who knows the lay of the land to catch this killer. But no one ever said Cam wasn't willing to get her hands dirty. . .

Autumn has descended on Westbury, Massachusetts, but the mood at the Farm-to-Table Dinner in Cam's newly built barn is unseasonably chilly. Local entrepreneur Irene Burr made a lot of enemies with her plan to buy Westbury's Old Town Hall and replace it with a textile museum--enough enemies to fill out a list of suspects when the wealthy widow turns up dead in a neighboring farm.

Even an amateur detective like Cam can figure out that one of the resident locavores went loco--at least temporarily--and settled a score with Irene. But which one? With the Fall harvest upon her, Cam must sift through a bushelful of possible killers that includes Irene's estranged stepson, her disgruntled auto mechanic, and a fellow CSA subscriber who seems suspiciously happy to have the dead woman out of the way.

The closer she gets to weeding out the culprit, the more Cam feels like someone is out to cut her harvest short. But to keep her own body out of the compost pile, she'll have to wrap this case up quickly.

Praise For A Tine To Live, A Tine To Die

"Absorbing. . .Builds to an exciting climax." -- Publishers Weekly

"A fresh new voice on the cozy mystery scene, Edith Maxwell serves up a tasty plot and a bumper crop of colorful characters in her debut novel, A Tine to Live, A Tine to Die. Fans of Sheila Connolly and Dorothy St. James will be happy to discover a smart, new sleuth who isn't afraid to get her hands dirty." --Rosemary Harris, Anthony and Agatha Award-nominated author of Pushing Up Daisies

"Another topically relevant cozy debut." -- Library Journal

"A sparkling read. It's a down on the farm murder mystery with a bumper crop of locally grown suspects and red herrings." --Reed Farrel Coleman, three-time Shamus Award-winning author of Gun Church

"With an insider's look at organic farming and a loyal, persistent heroine, Maxwell offers a series that cozy mystery fans will root for." --Lucy Burdette, author of Death in Four Courses

From Booklist

At a dinner of local food growers, organic farmer Cam Flaherty can’t help but notice that her guest, Irene, is rubbing some folks the wrong way. But when Irene is found dead in a neighbor’s pigpen, Cam wants to help clear Cam’s friend Bobby’s name off the suspect list. Cam’s customers bring her gossip and engage in some strange behavior, particularly Diane, who turns out to have ulterior motives for visiting the farm. While doing her amateur sleuthing, Cam finds time to enter her produce in a fair, help abused animals, and deal with her moody boyfriend—all of which add depth to her character. The organic-farming backdrop ably supports a twisted and timely plot. There are plenty of farming-based cozies on the market today, but this one stands out in what is becoming a crowded field. --Amy Alessio

About the Author

Agatha-nominated author Edith Maxwell is a former farmer of a certified organic farm, holds Ph.D. in Linguistics, and is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America. Her short stories have appeared in a number of juried award-winning anthologies, and as Maddie Day she also writes the Country Store Mysteries and the Cozy Capers Mysteries series. Maxwell lives with her beau and three cats in northeastern Massachusetts, where she works on one of her mystery series when she isn't out gardening or cooking up recipes for the books. Readers can visit her website at www.edithmaxwell.com.