Murder by Vegetable: Baby Quilt (Quilted Mysteries)
No one in tiny Park County, Tennessee, likes Harrison Ragsdale, also known as Hairy Rags, the game warden. Far from being a lover of animals, he seems to be connected to too many missing cats, poodles, and pet bears. During the Ramp Festival, he wanders into a field where hobbyists were firing vegetables with homemade weapon-launchers and promptly collapses, dead. Sheriff Tony Abernathy, aided by his wife, Theo, must sift through the abundance of likely suspects, as nearly everyone has a reason to be glad Rags is gone. Tony follows the trail around the county, using clues from the beer-fueled bragging at the local seedy bar and the coffee-driven gossip at Theo’s quilt shop. In this latest in Graham’s quilting series (Murder by Music: The Wedding Quilt, 2011), Tony carries the story, as Theo manages the couple’s twins. The supporting cast includes realistically quirky small-town characters, some recurring. As always, there is a mystery quilt—this time a baby quilt—and quilting instructions, along with clues, are scattered throughout the book. --Karen Muller