DEATH BY JACK-O’-LANTERN

A surly farmer meets a grisly end in a corn maze.

Abby McCree (Death by Committee, 2019) still hasn’t figured out what she wants to do with her life after her marriage goes bust, but while she’s waiting, Connie Pohler, assistant to the mayor of Snowberry Creek, has plenty of ideas about how Abby should be spending her time. First, Connie suckered 30-something Abby into heading up Mayor McKay’s Committee on Senior Affairs. Now she’s got Abby involved in planning the town’s annual Halloween Festival. Abby doesn’t mind stringing streamers or thinking up fundraisers, but she hates the idea of driving out to Ronald Minter’s ramshackle place to pick up a load of pumpkins for the festival. Minter is well known at City Hall for complaining about everything from the route of the homecoming parade to the speed limit on the road past his farm. When she gets to his place, Minter’s uncharacteristically quiet, mainly because someone’s stabbed him in the back with an Army knife. Chief of police Gage Logan suspects Kevin Montgomery, a homeless retired Army sergeant, but, unable to track down the vagabond vet, he throws Abby’s tenant, Tripp Blackston, in the pokey for refusing to disclose Montgomery’s whereabouts. Unlike nearly every other cozy heroine determined to clear the name of someone she cares about, Abby doesn’t quiz potential suspects or scout out the crime scene; she simply waits patiently with her ear to the ground and lets the typical village buzz reveal the secret to her.

Less is more here—just a little bit slower.