Death by Deep Dish Pie 
A Toadfern Mystery 
By Sharon Short

       A serpent is loose in Paradise, Ohio, and Josie Toadfern is determined to find it. For one thing, the elderly widow, Mrs. Beavy, has a mysterious stain on the pink blouse she wears to the Baptist Church every Sunday. She swears to Josie, owner of Paradise's only laundromat and stain expert, that she has no idea what the stain is. She also swears she doesn't know how it got there. Josie has a strong feeling that she knows what it is, but she doesn't want to tell. For Mrs. Beavy, that is unusual behavior.

     In addition, Mrs. Beavy is working on a secret project with Cletus Brietenstrater, co-owner of Paradise's chief employer, the Brietenstrater Pie Company. Mrs. Beavy won't say just what the project is, only that it concerns some items in the Paradise Historical Society's collection, of which Mrs. Beavy is curator.

     Next, Josie bites into a less-than-perfect Brietenstrater pie. What is happening to the company? They never made pies this bad before! Perhaps it has something to do with the announcements that both Cletus and his brother Alan were planning to make at the annual Brietenstrater pie-eating contest, but Cletus, perennial winner of the contest, never showed up. Alan, who had agreed to substitute for Cletus, keels over into his lemon ginseng pie and dies. Was it murder? After all, he threw out the chocolate pie Cletus normally would have eaten.

     Death by Deep Dish Pie is a cozy lover's delight. Between Trudy Brietenstrater's AWOL ferret Slinky, Alan's death, Cletus' disappearance and Mrs. Beavy's stain, Josie has her hands full. Then her uncle Otis gets himself arrested! This story will leave you laughing long after you find out the identity of the villain.