Peaches and Scream by Susan Furlong

I really do love peaches. In fact, my neighbor has two peach trees and we have plum trees, so we are always swapping fruits. I also really love to start a series right when it comes out and Peaches and Scream by Susan Furlong is the first in the Georgia Peach Mystery Series. 

From the back of the book:

In the first Georgia Peach Mystery, when murder threatens her family’s orchard, Nola Harper is ready to pick out the killer and preserve the farm’s reputation…

To help run the family peach farm during her parents’ absence, Nola Harper returns to her childhood home of Cays Mill, Georgia, and soon discovers that things back at the farm aren’t exactly peachy. A poor harvest and rising costs are threatening to ruin the Harper's livelihood, and small-town gossip is spreading like blight thanks to Nola’s juicy reputation as a wild teenager way back when. But Nola really finds herself in the pits when she stumbles upon a local businessman murdered among the peach trees.

With suspicions and family tensions heating up faster than a cobbler in the oven, this sweet Georgia peach will have to prune through a list of murder suspects—before she too becomes ripe for the killer’s picking…

My thoughts:

Nola and her family were really fun to get to know. Since she was away for so long and just returning to the small town where she grew up, the meeting of the characters was natural and a joy. There was a tension between the sheriff and her family and living in a small town, I can totally get how things like that happen. 

The mystery and pacing were perfect and really kept me guessing. There was even a point I was convinced I had things figured out, yet a little more was revealed and I had to rethink my solution. The resolution was believable and I think a cozy addict like myself could have solved it with some thought, which is always refreshing. 

You will want to grab your own copy today so you can get in at the start of what promises to be a delicious new series... and speaking of delicious there are peach recipes in the back!! 


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