Blurb:
When the mayor declares there will be no Halloween parade, a village tradition, Kate and her friends are surprised by the announcement. Sarah, Kate’s neighbor and friend is furious and she vows there will be a Halloween parade. A chance meeting with the mayor on Labor Day, also a no parade day sets Sarah and the mayor at odds. What can be done? There should be a parade, since there hasn’t been one since the start of the COVID epidemic.
Sarah gathers signatures on a petition she presents to the mayor. Mayor Bloom, refuses to acknowledge the gesture. Sarah vows she will find a way to thwart the over-weight man she calls Mayor Lard.
Kate receives a phone call from a friend in Vermont. The town where her friend lives has recently purchased some lamp post decorations that look like those she remembers from the Hudson River village. Are they the same. Kate sets out to learn.
While exploring the basement storage room at the town hall, Kate discovers the decorations for all the holidays are gone. She also discovers the body of the mayor. He has been hit over the head and also stabbed. Kate wonders who was so furious. Suspicion falls on her friend, Sarah. Kate sets out to find the killer and prays it’s not her friend.
Excerpt:
Maude, There’s A Body on The Lawn
“What’s a nice girl like me doing in a dump like this?” Maude Forest laughed. At her age, thinking of herself as a girl was foolish, but describing her present domicile as a dump said it all. She shifted position on the moth-eaten sofa and grabbed her cell phone. Maybe her best friend had returned from her latest jaunt. Maude was in dire need of diversion. Why would a self-made millionaire want to find his roots? She looked at the faded, water-stained wallpaper and prayed her husband of thirty-five years would come to his senses. He’d dragged her to this farmhouse on the edge of nowhere because his father, grandfather, and who knows how many greats had lived here. What was wrong with a cruise or a visit to Broadway? Even a golfing vacation would have been more fun. No, George had to see the home of his ancestors, his unexpected inheritance and the place his mother had fled when he was a few months old.
She dialed a familiar number and heard her friend’s voice. “Sue Ellen, regale me with tales of civilization.”
Sue Ellen Pinewood laughed. “The Parker wedding was a gross extravaganza.”
“Was I missed?”
“Absolutely. Without your caustic comments, I was bored. Let me tell you about the dust-up at the Women’s Club luncheon.”
The phone crackled. Maude couldn’t hear her friend.
“Sue Ellen, are you there?” “Sorry. My driver hit a rut. Where was I?”
“At the Women’s Club.”
While Sue Ellen gave a blow by blow, Maude felt envy blossom like the roses on the trellis outside the window. She’d give almost anything to walk on concrete instead of dirt, but budging George was impossible.
“Ma, Ma, git out here,” George bellowed.
“I’m not your mother.”
Sue Ellen chuckled. “Is Ma his new pet name?”
Maude sighed. “Since he’s in the hills, he’s turned us into Ma and Pa Kettle.
“Where are you?”
“Midway between Luke and Stumpy Point.”
Sue Ellen giggled. “So when will you be home?”
“Who knows when Pa Kettle will find the roots his mother severed when she left his father.”
“Have you done anything interesting?”
Maude rolled her eyes. “We appeared at a strawberry festival. Shame I’m allergic.”
My Places
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Mark My Places
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