Batter Off Dead
Robbie and her new husband, Abe O’Neill, are enjoying a summer evening in the park with fellow townsfolk, excited for some Friday night fireworks. In attendance are senior residents from Jupiter Springs Assisted Living, including Roy Bird, father to South Lick’s very own Police Lieutenant Buck Bird. Despite his blindness, Roy is a member of his group home’s knitting circle, spending quality time with some lovely ladies.
But when the light show ends, one of the knitters who sat with Roy is found dead, a puncture wound in her neck. The poor woman’s death echoes that of Buck’s mother and Roy’s wife, an unsolved homicide. To help find the killer, Robbie’s going to have to untangle the knotty relationships deep in the victim’s past.
The Details
Series: A Country Store Mystery – Book #10
Author: Maddie Day
Genre/Category: Cozy – Culinary/Hobby
Publisher: Kensington Cozies
ISBN: 1496735633
Page Count: 304
Rating: 
The Review
Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell) is one of my all-time favorite cozy authors. Every series she writes brings a smile to my face and a lightness to my heart. The “A Country Store Mystery” series is never dull. The newest addition, Batter Off Dead, is a perfect example of what this writer and this series exude. The characters are delightfully funny, warm, and alluring. From Robbie and Abe to the seniors that populate the town of South Lick, every one of them will give readers a reason to be happy. Add in fireworks, knitting, murder, and you have a wonderful picture of a lovely town and people that fill you with interest.
It’s summer, and Robbie and Abe are enjoying marital bliss and fireworks. The seniors from Jupiter Springs assisted living facility are lined up with their knitting and their gossip. Among them is Roy, Police Lieutenant Buck Bird’s father. He may be blind, but he loves his knitting. After the firework show ends, one of the seniors is found dead. Oddly enough, the murder resembles one from long ago, the victim, Buck’s mother. It doesn’t take long for the gossip mill to start churning, and Robbie jumping in headfirst.
Suspects are all around; just about anyone could be the killer. During the fireworks, no one would hear anything, and the seniors had been dozing or concentrating on their knitting. The witnesses are numerous, yet no one saw a thing. Or… was there a witness that no one knows about? There are plenty of red herrings to keep readers rooted in their seats. It doesn’t take long for Robbie to connect the dots and come up with the killer’s name; even though she doesn’t want to believe it, she is faced with no choice. It doesn’t take her long to figure out that the person who killed Buck’s mother all those years ago is the same person responsible for this latest death.
Fireworks explode as the killer and the motive is revealed. The seniors, especially Roy, are grateful for Robbie’s sleuthing skills. Readers will adore the characters and the town. Robbie and Abe will make you believe in love and hope. This book has a lot of fireworks, and not all of them are in the night sky. Batter Off Dead brings Robbie’s country store, the hometown feel of South Lick, and the citizens, seniors, and others to the forefront. It allows readers to enjoy a couple of hours without the worries of the world on their shoulders.
The Author
Edith Maxwell (aka Maddie Day) has always been a writer. She made her living writing technical documentation in the software industry, wrote features and essays as a free-lance journalist, edited medical texts, and produced several published articles and a doctoral dissertation in the field of linguistics. And before that, she wrote fiction and news articles, with her first paid published story appearing at age 9. Creating fiction, long and short, is what makes her happiest (although she wrote a prose poem about her late father that she’s rather proud of).
As a former organic farmer, Edith knows the language and tensions of someone like Cam Flaherty, the farmer in the Local Foods mysteries. Edith lived in southern Indiana for five years and loved the slow pace and language of its natives, so it made sense to set the Country Store Mysteries there. She taught independent childbirth classes and worked as a doula for some years, giving her insight into the life of a historical midwife as portrayed in the Quaker Midwife Mysteries. And her new Cozy Capers Book Group series comes straight out of both her imagination and several solo writing retreats on Cape Cod.
Edith lives in Amesbury, Massachusetts, but is originally a fourth-generation Californian. She has two grown sons and lives in an antique house with her beau and their two cats.
Other books in this series readers will want to read When the Grits Hit the Fan or the delightful No Grater Crime.
Represented by: Talbot Fortune Agency
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