A baby is found in a basket on the grounds of a small-town museum during their annual Folk Festival. Twenty-two years later, a homeless man is murdered in exactly the same spot. Connection? Or coincidence? Peace Morrow, the foundling, now an adult working at the museum, is haunted by this question and thus begins a quest that explores the nature of family, of loyalty and responsibility. As she tries to reconstruct the victim's history, his story becomes entangled with her own search for family roots, a journey that leads her through the dusty boxes in the museum's basement, to the antique markets in the northern part of the state and, ultimately, to the innermost reaches of her own heart.
Doylestown Bookshop, 16 South Main St., Doylestown, PA
Lion Around Books, 302 West Broad St., Quakertytown, PA
The Zen Den, 20 Donaldson St., Doylestown, PA
The Jennie Connors/ Riverview Manor mystery series:
LEFT AT OZ
Jennie Connors is crazy about her handsome husband, but she dreads his reaction when she tells him her car was stolen. When she finds a message hinting that the vehicle was left at Oz, she jumps at the chance to find the car before he returns from the West Coast. Following directions given in the message, Jennie finds the car. Problem is - there's a body in it. It gets worse. Turns out the victim is Robin Langley, babysitter for the Connors' two young sons.
What motive could anyone have for killing Robin? Why steal the Connors' car to hide the body, then leave a message directing Jennie to it? Fearing that a direct threat to her family is behind the sinister events, Jennie determines to find the killer herself.
Jennifer Connors, the activities director of Riverview Manor, is working late one night when she hears resident Nathaniel Pynchon pleading, "Put out the light." Following Nate down a darkened corridor, Jennie discovers the body of Rosalie Cardamon.
Everyone at Riverview assumes the former actor has finally slipped over the line separating fantasy from reality and committed murder. Only Jennie believes him innocent. But if it wasn't Nate, who was it? When Jennie learns that wounds left by a thirty-year-old accident are still festering, she wonders if Rosalie's death could be related. Unfortunately, the police are too busy investigating Nate to care.
To further complicate matters, Jennie has problems of her own. Her estranged husband Tom is demanding she pay less attention to the murder investigation and more to the safety of their children, a demand she is forced to take seriously when someone takes a shot at her.
Jennie Connor’s friend, Lilly, is in big trouble. Two patrons are poisoned while dining at her restaurant. The police are busy with crowd control and don’t notice a shadowy figure climb down the arbor and slip away. Jennie watches and wonders if Lilly’s daughter, Jasmine, is up to her usual teenage mischief. Or is it something more sinister?
While the press focuses on one of the victims, Phillip Jeffries, a junior high principal who’s made a lot of enemies during his career, Jennie learns that the other victim, teacher Leonard Atkinson, has his own dirty little secret.
Jennie tries to sort it out, aided and abetted by her "tea ladies." These six elderly women, made up of more spice than sugar, are residents of Riverview Manor, where Jennie works as Activities Director.
When Preston Barrons hands Jennie Connors the key to Barrons Bank and Trust Company and asks her to pay a 2 a.m. visit, her instinct screams "give them back!" But how can she, when her paycheck depends on finding out who made an unauthorized transfer? Money from a recent fundraiser has ended up in the account of Webster Barrons and the family is hoping Jennie can clear their son's name.
Instead of answers, Jennie stumbles over the body of Preston's right-hand man. She goes looking for the security guard, but he finds her first and assumes she's trying to sneak out. It seems the only way extricate herself from bank politics is to find the killer.
With Nate, the Tea Ladies and the rest of Riverview's rowdy crew on hand to assist and advise, Jennie's latest adventure promises plenty of fireworks.
