Drizzled with Death by Jessie Crockett

By Stacy Mantle

Like Mayberry, but with Dead Bodies…

The tagline on her website reads, “Like Mayberry – with dead bodies…” and that effectively sums up Jessie Crockett’s entertaining series of mysteries. Homemade apple pie, family dinners, pancake breakfasts and a new meaning to the phrase, “getting tapped” – DRIZZLED WITH DEATH is a wildly entertaining mystery that will make you want to live in a small town, despite rising murder rates.

As an award-winning novelist, and avid “foodie” living in a tiny village in New Hampshire, Crockett has the perfect setting for her novels. Her Sugar Grove Mystery series is filled with life, love and death – and some memorable characters who will keep you coming back for more. Published by Berkley Prime Crime, DRIZZLED WITH DEATH is as delightful as the maple syrup her main character, Dani Greene, is so known for in this small town.

The setting is late fall in Sugar Grove, NH. Usually it’s a quiet season with sugarhouses focused on gearing up for holiday syrup sales. At Greener Pastures they are busier than usual as they prepare to apply for organic certification, and expanding a line of maple themed products for their newly opened store.

Fall is also when the firemen’s auxiliary, The Sap Bucket Brigade, hosts their annual fundraising breakfast and pancake eating contest. When competitor Alanza Speedwell drops dead in her stack of hotcakes many onlookers fight an urge to cheer. Initially welcomed to the community after inheriting a valuable parcel of land, Alanza systematically turns members of the town against her. She ends a long term agreement leasing maple trees to syrup makers and announces plans to clear the land for a self storage facility.

Once it is discovered Alanza was killed by pesticide laced syrup donated by Greener Pastures, a Grade A investigation focuses on the Greene family. With her sugar house’s reputation on the line and dreams of organic certification fading fast Dani Greene launches her own investigation in order to discover who was really meant to be the victim, Alanza or Greener Pastures.

Dani knows the police—including her ex-boyfriend—are barking up the wrong tree, and she’s determined to pull her loved ones out of a very sticky situation. The odds may be stacked against her, but she’s got to tap the real killer before some poor sap in her own family ends up trading the sugar house for the Big House…

Sheila Connolly, NEW YORK TIMES Bestselling author of BURIED IN A BOX calls it, “A delightful and funny start to a new series, with a great cast of characters who find themselves in sticky situations.”

A nearly life-long resident of the Granite State, Jessie naturally adores black flies, 98% humidity and snow banks taller than the average grandmother. When not writing she combs the beach and throws parties. She delights in mentoring young writers at local schools. She lives with her dark and mysterious husband and exuberant children in a village so small many other New Hampshire residents have never heard of it. Her debut mystery, LIVE FREE OR DIE, won the 2011 Daphne du Maurier Award for Mainstream Mystery.

To learn more about Jessie, please visit her website.