Review

Piper Lamb’s pickling shop in the small town of Cloverdale, New York, is off to a good start. Piper has high hopes her booth at the Cloverdale Fair will help her fledgling business grow even more. With the help of her eager assistant Amy, Piper sets up all of her various pickled vegetables and fruits and can’t wait to introduce Cloverdale to her unique products. The fair barely begins when Amy’s new boyfriend Nate gets into a heated and very public argument with town council member Alan Rosemont. When the boorish council member is later murdered and his dead body is found in Piper’s pickle barrel, Piper is horrified. Things get worse when Amy’s boyfriend becomes the top suspect of the sheriff’s office with the investigation being led by none other than Amy’s father.  When Amy begs Piper to investigate, Piper agrees to do ask some questions of her own to get to the truth behind Councilman Rosemont’s death and hopefully find that Nate is innocent.

The Pickled & Preserved mystery series gets off to a good start with The Pickled Pepper. Piper is a likeable, if a bit bland main character. She is a good friend and is willing to help investigate a murder on behalf of Amy’s boyfriend, even though she doesn’t know him very well. The premise that Amy thinks Piper would be good at investigating the murder because she was “once engaged to a criminal lawyer” is pretty thin! However, it turns out she is good at finding the right people to question and getting them to share details that shed light on the murder.

The mystery is interesting with enough twists to be interesting, but not so many sub-plots to be confusing. I like the small town setting of the book and the way many of the townspeople stand behind newcomer Nate, even though others were quick to judge him and believe him to be guilty since he was new to the town. The worst case of being judgmental is on the part of the sheriff. I don’t care much for his character at all and couldn’t believe how unsupportive he was to his daughter. Throughout the book, he is quick to believe his straight-laced, by-the-book volunteer deputy that Nate is guilty, but won’t listen to any of the evidence Piper presents. However, later the sheriff practically insists she accompany him to what is sure to be a dangerous situation.

Another part of the book I could have done without is the overused cliché of the clueless ex who won’t accept that the main character has moved on with her life. Unfortunately, that’s what we have with Piper’s ex-fiancé Scott who even on his quest to Tibet seems to think the two are still a couple. Luckily, there are other great characters, such as Piper’s Aunt Judy, who is as kind and supportive as Piper. Amy is a little immature, but also very likeable. All in all, they make the small town of Cloverdale a nice place to visit. I would definitely be interested in a sequel to the book. Fans of Paige Sheldon’s Farmer’s Market mysteries will be pleased to discover this fun new series.

Reviewed by Christine