COURTING CAN BE KILLER

The Amish Miss Marple strikes again.

Now that Millie Fisher of Harvest, Ohio, has solved a murder, her reputation as a sleuth is upstaging her skills as a matchmaker. Widowed Millie is a bit too independent to suit many in her conservative community, and her lifelong friendship with the flamboyant Englischer Lois Henry often gets her in trouble. As the book opens, she's searching the local flea market for Ben Baughman, an ambitious young man she met while caring for her invalid sister in Michigan and who just moved to Harvest to be among a larger Amish community. Ben has been working four jobs to save enough money to impress Tess Lieb’s father, who’s refused him permission to court his daughter. Millie counsels patience. While the couple is waiting, the flea market—where Ben works as a night watchman—burns nearly to the ground, killing Ben, who apparently was sleeping on the job. When Ben’s blamed for the fire, Millie resolves to prove him innocent. With her sidekick, Lois, egging her on, she sets out to investigate Ben’s employers and co-workers as possible suspects. Tess tells Millie that her father opposed any courtship because he’s sending her out to Wyoming to help her aunt, who has triplets, a fate Tess is desperate to escape. Some of Millie’s snooping clearly touches a nerve, because someone throws a rock at her with a threatening message attached. With only her beloved Boer goats to protect her, she refuses to give up.

Flower’s second exciting adventure offers a multidimensional portrait of Amish life.