Local Food Mysteries

The second book in the Local Foods Mystery series by Edith Maxwell features rookie farmer Cameron Flaherty mixed up in more than harvesting vegetables for locavores. Her Westbury, Massachusetts farm is hosting a Farm-to-Table dinner and all seems to be going smoothly until entrepreneur Irene Burr argues with everyone in sight.

She wants to purchase the Old Town Meeting Hall and turn it into a textile museum, but has met resistance from many of the old time residents. When she winds up dead on a neighboring farm, Cam turns amateur detective again. Naturally there are plenty of suspects - Irene's stepson Bobby Burr, mechanic Simone Koyama, custodian Wes Ames and farmer Howard Fisher.

Cam encounters other problems - a jealous boyfriend chef Jake

Ericsson and newfound attention from state police officer Pete Pappas. Trying to manage her crops and investigate the murder draws Cam further into the mystery. When she finds a threatening note then manages to lose it before she can show it to Pappas, she turns her focus back to her farm and the food shares she has to harvest for her cooperative.

One thing I have learned from this series is farming is not for the fainthearted or the lazy. Cam is up early harvesting, gathering, planting new seeds, composting and much more, as well as investigating. Considering she has only been a farmer for a year when she was a software engineer prior to the switch, she is holding her own. To me that was very left brain changing to right brain. I'm rooting for Cam to keep her locavores happy and get her organic farm certification. Wish I were nearby for the dozen fresh eggs!

The first book in the series is A Tine to Live, A Tine to Die.