""Clemens creates a cozy, safe-feeling community that needs a fierce defender like Stella to protect it from the bad eggs, and readers will love her determination to make things right while letting everyone live the way he or she desires.""--Publishers Weekly
""A sprightly tale and a surprising ending, along with Clemens's trademark quirky characters.""--Kirkus review of Different Paths
""This unique series deserves a much larger audience and more recognition.""-Booklist review of Different Paths
""Clemens avoids making farm life too bucolic, while Stella, with her Harley, cows and engaging circle of friends, will appeal to cozy and more mainstream mystery fans alike. This is a solid addition to a series that improves book by book.""-Publishers Weekly review of The Day Will Come
""Though Stella and her friends often seem an unlikely bunch, Clemens certainly keeps you guessing.""-Kirkus review of The Day Will Come
""The third entry in Clemens's Stella Crown series (after the Agatha Award-winning Till the Cows Come Home, 2004, and Three Can Keep a Secret, 2005) won't disappoint fans of the first two books. Strongly recommended.""-Library Journal starred review of To Thine Own Self Be True
""Bikers and tattoos have something of an image problem, but Clemens's fun and surprising third Stella Crown mystery (after 2005's Three Can Keep a Secret) goes a long way toward improving that image.""--Publishers Weekly review of To Thine Own Self Be True
""Clemens offers readers an intriguing story that takes them inside the world of tattooing and gives them a taste of daily life on a dairy farm. That may seem like an odd combination, but Clemens makes it work, thanks to abundant wit, well-developed characters, and a vividly realized rural setting.""--Booklist review of To Thine Own Self Be True
Clemens returns to the adventures of dairy farmer, biker, and amateur sleuth Stella Crowne. This time Stella is helping her teenage employee show a calf in a fair and dealing with her fiancé Nick’s weddingplanning sister, Miranda. The politics of the fair are proving annoying, but when Molly finds a dead body in the manure track, she is jolted out of her own troubles and into everyone’s business as she attempts to unearth clues. Stella’s irascible manner and straightforward approach make her out of the ordinary among the many more mild-mannered amateur sleuths. Clemens will win new readers with this multifaceted crime caper, which makes the most of the 4-H setting, in which the teen competitors behave much better than the adults around them. Farm mysteries, including those by B. B. Haywood, are gaining in popularity among cozy fans, and this series is one of the best in the growing subgenre. Fans of Ann Jaffarian’s Ophelia Grey will also enjoy Stella’s no-nonsense approach to crime-solving.
2013-10-19
A folksy fair turned deadly forces an unconventional dairy farmer to solve more than just a murder to save the day. Planning a wedding is what most girls dream of, but dairy farmer Stella Crown isn't most girls. She's much more involved with helping young protégés like her employee Zach make a good showing at the 4-H competition at the county fair. Stella leaves the wedding planning to Miranda, her future sister-in-law, who's happy to help even if she isn't too impressed by Stella as her brother Nick's intended. Although Stella loves Nick with all her heart, Miranda's convinced that Stella is only after the family money, a theory that appears to be increasingly supported by Stella's ongoing financial hardships. Stella's hopes that the 4-H competition can take her mind off the trouble on the homefront are thwarted when the Gregg family enters the fray. Known for buying their wins in the calf competition, the Greggs are prepared to do whatever it takes to get the top prize, and Zach knows that he doesn't stand a chance despite his hard work. Soon after Stella, Nick and their friends try to take their minds off the situation by spending the evening listening to new country singer Rikki Raines, they find the young singer's dead body. Stella wants to get to the bottom of things, partly since she wants to relieve herself of potential blame and partly due to the fact that, for an amateur sleuth, she isn't half bad. Unfortunately, the intended wit and quirkiness with which Clemens (Flowers for Her Grave, 2011, etc.) attempts to endow her characters often misses the mark, leaving Stella less interesting than she's supposed to be.
