A Sprinkling of Murder

by Daryl Wood Gerber

Overview

Fairy garden store owner Courtney Kelly believes in inviting magic into your life. But when uninvited trouble enters her shop, she’ll need more than a sprinkling of her imagination to solve a murder . . .
 
Since childhood, Courtney has loved fairies. After her mother died when Courtney was ten, she lost touch with that feeling of magic. A year ago, at age twenty-nine, she rediscovered it when she left her father's landscaping business to spread her wings and start a fairy garden business and teashop in beautiful Carmel, California. At Open Your Imagination, she teaches garden design and sells everything from fairy figurines to tinkling wind chimes. Now she's starting a book club tea.
 
But the light of the magical world she's created inside her shop is darkened one night when she discovers neighboring dog-grooming business owner Mick Watkins dead beside her patio fountain. To make matters worse, the police suspect Courtney of the crime. To clear her name and find the real killer, Courtney will have to wing it. But she’s about to get a little help from an unexpected source . . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781496726346
Publisher:	Kensington
Publication date:	06/30/2020
Series:	A Fairy Garden Mystery Series , #1
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	96,158
Product dimensions:	5.48(w) x 8.23(h) x 0.95(d)

About the Author

Agatha Award–winning Daryl Wood Gerber writes the French Bistro Mysteries as well as the nationally bestselling Cookbook Nook Mysteries. As Avery Aames, she pens the popular Cheese Shop Mysteries. Daryl also writes stand-alone suspense, which include the titles Day of Secrets and Girl on the Run. Fun tidbit: as an actress, Daryl appeared in Murder, She Wrote. She loves to cook, and she has a frisky Goldendoodle named Sparky who keeps her in line!

Editorial Reviews

06/01/2020

At the start of this enchanting series launch from Agatha Award winner Gerber (the French Bistro mysteries), Courtney Kelly, the owner of Open Your Imagination, a fairy garden and tea shop in Carmel-by-the-Sea, Calif., directs a five-year-old customer’s attention to a planter on the shop’s patio where she hopes the girl will see a fairy named Fiona. The girl does see Fiona. Courtney considers it part of her mission to encourage young and old to see and enjoy fairies, though only believers can do so. When Mick Watkins, the owner of the neighboring dog grooming salon, is found murdered inside Courtney’s shop, feisty Fiona joins Courtney and friends in giving Det. Dylan Summers of the Carmel PD some unwanted help in solving the crime. Issues with Courtney and Mick’s landlord, the victim’s open affair with a prominent councilwoman, his wife’s understandable jealousy, and his mysterious manuscript based on a decades-old local tragedy provide the sleuths plenty to investigate. Gerber makes what could have been unbearably cute convincing. Cozy fans will wish upon a star for more. Agent: John Talbot, Talbot Fortune Agency. (July)

Publishers Weekly

2020-04-13
When the owner of a nearby shop is killed in Courtney Kelly's fairy garden store, she must join forces with her fairy friend to solve the crime.

Courtney, the proprietor of the Open Your Imagination fairy garden store, doesn’t just believe that fairies are real; she has proof to share. Her store is home to Fiona, a mischievous fairy who's in a sort of remedial fairy-in-training program to get her adult wings. Apparently her propensity for pranks in fairy school has obliged her to demonstrate to the queen fairy that she’s serious about her do-gooding duties. When Courtney becomes a suspect in the murder of Mick Watkins, the owner of the Wizard of Paws grooming salon, it seems like the perfect time for Fiona to give Courtney an assist that the queen fairy will notice. If Courtney’s innocent, though, who’s to blame? When Courtney and Fiona begin to investigate, they find many too many suspects, from Mick’s wife, Emily, who’s angry about his recent affair, to Mick and Courtney’s landlord, who wanted Mick’s business out. In this old-fashioned cozy, the whos and whys won’t be a surprise. Nor will the 25 pages of appended recipes, which complement the fairy focus of the story with some serious calories.

Fairies flutter throughout the first in this by-the-book series.

Kirkus Reviews