Megan Sawyer leaves her Chicago law firm and returns home to Winsome, Pennsylvania, to be closer to her grandmother and to turn the family farm into an organic enterprise that includes a retail store for her fresh produce and a cafe. She doesn’t expect it to be one delay after another as the needed permits keep being denied for one thing or another. But then the body of Simon Duvall, the man withholding the permits, is found dead in Megan’s barn and Megan finds herself trying to answer questions surrounding the murder.
Megan is smart, inquisitive and daring (but not necessarily reckless) -- a thirty-something-year-old Nancy Drew or, perhaps more fitting because of the farm setting, Trixie Belden. She, like the famous teen detectives, also has a great circle of friends, including Clover and Clay Hand, siblings who are store and farm manager, respectively, and who listen and offer insight throughout the case; Dr. Daniel “Denver” Finn, the local veterinarian who finds himself making a lot of house calls – and not just for the animals; Bobby King, the town’s police chief; and Bonnie “Bibi” Birch, Megan’s grandmother and confidant. I have the feeling that Brian Porter, a veteran who served in Afghanistan and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, will also become a trusted friend.
I figured out whodunit and why – or so I thought, because, while I was right for the most part, Tyson managed to throw in a surprise or two before the end – about the time Megan starts putting the pieces together. And, for me, that’s the charm of a cozy mystery over a police procedural or thriller where the perpetrator of the crime and the reason are often known early in the story.
A second Greenhouse Mystery, Bitter Harvest, is already planned for a spring 2017 release. I know I’ll be looking for it – and hopefully several more.
Rating: 5 Stars
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