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Red Delicious Death by Sheila Connolly

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


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I finished my “spare” book this evening. It was Red Delicious Death by Sheila Connolly, and it’s the third in the “Orchard” mystery series. The main character is novice orchardist, Meg Corey.

Meg is learning that there is a lot of work that goes into an apple harvest, and that preparations must begin months ahead of time, such as lining up pickers and finding buyers. Nevertheless, when her friend Lauren calls and says she knows a young couple who want to open a restaurant, Meg helps Brian and Nicky find a venue. Their friend Sam will be the sous chef, and part of his duties include visiting local farmers to source fresh food for the restaurant. When Sam is found dead in a pigsty, the police have reason to suspect it was homicide. Meg is too busy to get involved in any amateur investigation, but she does help out where she can. Sam wasn’t in town long enough to make any enemies, so Meg and everyone else is left wondering who would have wanted him dead?

The mystery took a backseat in this book, which was both refreshing and annoying. Most of the narrative was taken up with Meg’s orchard business, and her trying to help Brian and Nicky launch their restaurant endeavor. Meg’s relationship with Seth is progressing nicely, and it was VERY refreshing to read a cozy mystery wherein the main character neither stumbled over the victim’s dead body nor ended up in peril at the end of the book.

Favorite line: “Houses seem to have this built-in urge to self-destruct, and us hardy homeowners must battle constantly to prevent it.”

I was leaning towards an average score for this one, but my delight in the fact that Meg didn’t find the body or end up in danger at the end bumps the score up to four.