Sunflower Café Mystery

Looking for a fresh start, advice columnist Sissy Yoder heads to small-town Yoder, Kansas, to help in her aunt's cafe. But when a milkman is murdered, the newcomer becomes the prime suspect... After Sissy's rodeo cowboy boyfriend turns out to be more of a rodeo clown, she packs a bag, picks up her Yorkshire terrier Duke, and leaves Tulsa, Oklahoma, bound for her parents' former hometown. There are still plenty of Yoders in Yoder, Kansas, including Sissy's aunt Bethel, who owns the Sunflower Cafe but recently broke her leg. It's a homecoming of sorts as Sissy arrives to help in the cafe and reunite with her pregnant cousin Lizzie. Plus she can continue to secretly write her newspaper advice column as seventy-year-old "Aunt Bess." But it's Sissy who could use some advice when she finds the milk deliveryman out behind the cafe with a knife in his back. As the sheriff's prime suspect, it's up to Sissy to catch the backstabber herself-before someone else gets creamed...

The award-winning author's brand-new Sunflower Cafe Mystery series, set in small-town Kansas, features a twenty-something advice columnist turned cafe manager and sleuth, her loyal Yorkie, farm-fresh produce-and murder. Will appeal to fans of Charlotte Hubbard, Molly Jebber, Susan Lantz Simpson, and Kelly Long. Twenty-something Sissy Yoder never imagined herself running her Aunt Bethel's cafe, but her help is needed, so she's making a go of it. And she must admit that life in tiny Yoder has been anything but dull-she's already solved one homicide-after being named the prime suspect in the case! Enjoying a peaceful respite after all that excitement, Sissy just wants to write her advice column, hang out with her loyal Yorkie, Duke, and procure some of local farmer Walt Summers's scrumptious "To Die For" tomatoes for the Sunshine Cafe's menu. But when the unsavory Summers-resented by just about everyone in town-turns up murdered in his garden shed, it's up to Sissy to roll up her sleeves, dig for some clues, and weed out the culprit . . .

The unusual death of local herb farmer, Ginger Reed, is the talk of Yoder. Naturally, Sissy is intrigued. The official report classifies Ginger's demise as an accident, concluding that she ran herself over with a tractor. But Sissy's cousin, Naomi, a friend and longtime employee of Ginger's, insists that's impossible. When she asks for Sissy's help in unearthing the truth, Sissy's on the case, accompanied as ever by her loyal Yorkie companion, Duke... The deeper Sissy digs, the longer the list of suspects grows, and none of them are Ginger. Near the top is Ginger's resentful sister-in-law, Mallory. Next is Naomi's brother, Lloyd, who's bitter about the oil derrick presumably pumping black gold from Ginger's land-land that once belonged to his family. Naomi herself could be a suspect, it's her tractor, after all. But the investigation stalls when Naomi makes a shocking turnaround in her story. Is she lying? And if so, why? Then a missing dog, a desperate lawyer, and a teenage con artist are added to the mix, and the puzzle becomes hopelessly complicated. If Sissy doesn't solve it quickly, she'll be lost in the weeds as a killer reaps a deadly harvest...