Thursday, March 1, 2018

Killer Jam

Title: Killer Jam
Author: Karen MacInerney
Published: July 28th 2015 by Thomas & Mercer
Format: Paperback, 253 pages
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Series: Dewberry Farm #1

Karen MacInerney throws a couple of interesting possibilities into the first of the Dewberry Farm Mystery series. With the downsizing of the newspaper industry, Lucy Resnick takes an early out and with what she can scrape together decides to buy the small farm that once belonged to her grandmother in Buttercup, Texas.

As Lucy sees it, how hard can homesteading be and with her grandmother’s recipe book and a knack for canning and candle making, Lucy sets off to enter her jam in the Founders’ Day Festival. Unfortunately, as she is finishing up her first batch an oil exploration truck drives up and as it turns out Nettie Kocurek, who sold her the farm, did not relinquish the mineral rights so now Lucy may be facing a less than organic farm due to oil wells and fracking and very little recourse. Things go from bad to worse when Nettie is found dead with a skewer through her heart and a jam jar next to her. Nettie was a horrible woman, but it appears that Lucy was the most recent person to have an issue with her so unless she can clear her name within a couple of days, fracking is the last thing Lucy has to worry about.

There are a few side stories going on with the most dramatic being Quinn and her abusive husband and how Lucy would not turn her back on a friend in need no matter what sort of danger it might put her in. There is a budding romance between Lucy and the town vet, and another on how secrets, especially if they are in a lockbox, do not stay secret if you have the right chisel to open it.

Since this is the first in a series, I did not find that I fully bonded with any of the characters. There was a “haven’t I read this before” feel to the book that follows the usually cozy mystery plot lines down to the adored dog and the bumbling police department. I will continue with the series to see if someone will eventually pique my interest, but for now, Dewberry Farm lays is the usual cozy mix.

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