A Southern Strategy - Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia

One of my favorite authors is Ellery Adams. She is a prolific writer, managing to write three different cozy mystery series. They include The Book Retreat Mysteries, The Books by the Bay series and The Charmed Pie Shoppe. The quirkiest of these is The Book Retreat Mysteries. I stumbled on the first one entitled Murder in the Mystery Suite. It features Jane Steward, a widowed mother with twin six-year-old sons living in a reassembled English estate that is a genteel catering to book lovers located in western Virginia.

Jane decides to host a Murder and Mayhem Week, asking her guests to dress like their favorite mystery detective, but a real murder takes place and a valuable book is missing. I loved the entire concept of the Agatha Christie Tearoom, the Kipling Cafe or the Madame Bovary Dining Room, but the story takes a strange twist into family traditions and long-guarded secrets.

Another series by Ellery Adams is the Books By the Bay Mysteries. These feature Olivia Limoges, a restaurant owner living in Oyster Bay, North Carolina. In Lethal Letters Olivia is on hand when a time capsule is discovered during a church renovation. She catches a glimpse of the contents, but when the list of contents is made public, one of the items she saw is not on the list.

While taking a walk on the beach near her home Olivia and her niece discover the body of Ruthie Holcomb, someone no one wants to discuss. The missing item from the time capsule and the body on the beach lead Olivia on a hunt for the connection.

Book #1 in this series is A Killer Plot.

The third series is the whimsical Charmed Pie Shoppe Mysteries, set in Havenwood, Georgia. In Pecan Pies and Homicides,  Ella Mae Le Faye has the uncanny ability to bake her feelings into her cakes and pies, influencing the feelings and emotions of those who eat her desserts. Along with her three eccentric aunts who have special powers of their own, Ella Mae must save her magic community and the enchanted grove from an arsonist.
Book #1 Pies and Prejudice