Livia J. Washburn A Peach of a Murder

A Peach of a Murder

Livia J. Washburn

Signet, Oct 2006, $6.99, 272 pp.

ISBN 0451219740

The townsfolk of Weatherford, Texas is getting ready for the annual festival and housemates Phyllis, Mattie and Carolyn are plucking peaches in Newt Bishop's Orchard. Phyllis happens to notice that Newt is arguing with another man who turns out to be his own son. When she hears a scream coming from the barn, they see that Newt's car fell on top of him. They later learn that it might have been murder instead of an accident.

At the cooking competition, Donnie, an affluent businessman and one of the judges, suddenly keels over; it is later discovered that his water jar was laced with arsenic gotten from the laetrile from the peach pits. Suspicion falls on Carolyn because her daughter who worked for Donnie was arrested because he charged her with embezzlement; she claim he wanted revenge as she spurned his advances. A high school student commits suicide and one of the teachers is run over in a hit and run. Nobody realizes all these events are linked and when Phyllis discovers who the link is she doesn't want to believe it nor do any of the townsfolk.

Instead of pining away when her beloved husband died, the heroine opened her home to boarders and now three retired teachers and a widower who recently lost his wife are active in the community and are there for one another. Although Phyllis and Carolyn were competing in the cooking contest, Phyllis starts her own investigation because she is sure her friend is innocent. There are many surprises in this entertaining who done it but when the killer is revealed, nobody can believe that person is the killer. Livia J. Washburn has a refreshing way with words and knows how to tell an exciting story.

Harriet Klausner