Scrappily Ever After (7 page)

Mollie Cox Bryan
, author of the Cumberland Creek mystery series, is also the regional bestselling author of
Mrs. Rowe's Little Book of Southern Pies
and
Mrs. Rowe's Restaurant Cookbook: A Lifetime of Recipes from the Shenandoah Valley
. An award-winning journalist and poet, she currently blogs, cooks, and scrapbooks in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia with her husband and two daughters. Her first Cumberland Creek mystery,
Scrapbook of Secrets,
was nominated for an Agatha Award for best first novel. Please visit her at molliecoxbryan.com.

Having traded in her career as a successful
investigative journalist for the life of a
stay-at-home mom in picturesque
Cumberland Creek, Virginia,
Annie can't help but feel that something's missing.
But she finds solace in a local “crop circle” of
scrapbookers united by chore-shy husbands,
demanding children, and occasional fantasies
of their former single lives.
And when the quiet idyll of their small town
is shattered by a young mother's suicide,
they band together to find out what went wrong . . .

 

Annie resurrects her reporting skills and discovers
that Maggie Rae was a closet scrapbooker
who left behind more than a few secrets—and
perhaps a few enemies. As they sift through
Maggie Rae's mysteriously discarded scrapbooks,
Annie and her “crop” sisters begin to suspect that
her suicide may have been murder.
It seems that something sinister is lurking beneath
the town's beguilingly calm façade—like a killer
with unfinished business . . .

The ladies of the Cumberland Scrapbook Crop are
welcoming an eccentric newbie into their fold. A
self-proclaimed witch, Cookie Crandall can whip
up a sumptuous vegan meal and rhapsodize about
runes and moon phases with equal aplomb. She
becomes fast friends with her fellow scrapbookers,
including freelance reporter Annie, with whom she
shares shallow roots in a community of established
family trees. So when Cookie becomes the prime
suspect in a series of bizarre murders, the croppers
get scrappy and set out to clear her name . . .

 

Annie starts digging and discovers that the victims
each had strange runic patterns carved on their
bodies—a piece of evidence that points the police
in Cookie's direction. Even her friends begin to
doubt her innocence when they find an ornate,
spiritual scrapbook that an alleged beginner like
Cookie could never have crafted. As Annie and the
croppers search for answers, they'll uncover a
shockingly wicked side of their once-quiet town—
and a killer on the prowl for another victim . . .

Spring is in the air, but the ladies of the
Cumberland Creek Scrapbook Crop hardly have
time to stop and smell the roses. Not when famed
Irish dancer Emily McGlashen is found murdered
in her studio just after the St. Patrick's Day
parade—and one of the Crop's own members is the
prime suspect. Vera's dance studio may have
suffered when Emily waltzed into town, but the
croppers know she's not a vengeful murderer.
Lucky for her, co-scrapbooker Annie is a freelance
reporter eager to vindicate her friend. What she
discovers is a puzzling labyrinth of secrets that
only add question marks to Emily's murder. Just
when it seems they've run out of clues, an antique
scrapbook turns up and points the croppers in the
right direction—and brings them face to face with
a killer more twisted than a Celtic knot . . .

Summer's in full swing, and it's time once again
for the Cumberland Creek County Fair Pie
Competition. DeeAnn Fields just knows this is her
year to finally win with her brilliant apple green
chili pie. But after the judges take one bite and spit
it back out, ordering DeeAnn to leave at once, she's
baffled as to what went wrong . . . until she
discovers someone sabotaged her pie.

 

Banding together to find out who hated DeeAnn
enough to ruin her chances of winning,
the ladies of the Cumberland Scrapbook Crop
scrap their summer plans to get to the bottom of
this mystery so that they can return
to what they do best—cropping and crafting!

Christmas is just around the corner, and the ladies
of the Cumberland Creek Scrapbook Crop are
thrilled when Sheila wins first prize in a
scrapbooking design contest: a ten-day scrapbook-
themed cruise in the Caribbean. Vera and Paige
decide to tag along, which should pose the perfect
opportunity to learn some new techniques, mingle
with fellow croppers, and get in some rest and
relaxation before the chaos of Christmas. But
when Sheila finds a famous crafter dead, and
investigators determine she was poisoned, the
luxury cruise veers toward disaster as Sheila
becomes the number one suspect—or was she
really the intended victim? Just as the croppers
begin unwrapping the truth, a storm strands them
at sea, and they'll find it's harder than ever to
survive the holidays with a killer on deck . . .

eKENSINGTON BOOKS are published by

 

Kensington Publishing Corp.
119 West 40th Street
New York, NY 10018

 

Copyright © 2015 by Mollie Cox Bryan

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

 

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ISBN: 978-0-7582-9460-9

First Electronic Edition: May 2015