Bearly Departed

Hand sewn, made in America teddy bears have been Sasha Silverman life for several years. When the sales rep for Silver Bear Shop and Factory announces that he plans to ship the manufacturing overseas, Sasha says, "Over my dead body." In Bearly Departed by Meg Macy, it's not Sasha's dead body, but Will Taylor's.

Running the Silver Bear Shop and Factory with her sister Maddie and her uncle Ross, Sasha believes in enabling community groups to tour the factory, but she and Will have been bickering about it for years. When he announces he already spoke with her father about moving the production overseas, Sasha tries in vein to contact her parents. Leaving message after message on their phone, she starts to be concerned about them as well as the factory.

Adding to the drama, at the staff meeting her uncle and Will get into
a knock down drag out shouting match. Ross accuses Will of selling the pattern for their bears to a competitor and trying to get rid of him. One of the woman who sews the bears also threatens him.

When Sasha finds Will dead in their shop, she worries her uncle or employee will be charged with murder. She knows Will isn't the most popular person in town and has been known to cheat on his possessive wife, but who would murder him?

Still unable to reach her parents, she starts asking questions about Will and discovers some incriminating evidence. The Silver Bear Shop and Factory is an adorable place and making teddy bears is so sweet. My one concern about the book is the numerous extraneous characters named, but not really incorporated into the plot of the story, otherwise it is an exciting mystery.

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