Scrappily Ever After

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by Mollie Cox Bryan


  Having traded in her career as a successful

  investigative journalist for the life of a

  stay-at-home mom in picturesque

  Cumberland Creek, Virginia,

  Annie can’t help but feel that something’s missing.

  But she finds solace in a local “crop circle” of

  scrapbookers united by chore-shy husbands,

  demanding children, and occasional fantasies

  of their former single lives.

  And when the quiet idyll of their small town

  is shattered by a young mother’s suicide,

  they band together to find out what went wrong . . .

  Annie resurrects her reporting skills and discovers

  that Maggie Rae was a closet scrapbooker

  who left behind more than a few secrets—and

  perhaps a few enemies. As they sift through

  Maggie Rae’s mysteriously discarded scrapbooks,

  Annie and her “crop” sisters begin to suspect that

  her suicide may have been murder.

  It seems that something sinister is lurking beneath

  the town’s beguilingly calm façade—like a killer

  with unfinished business . . .

  The ladies of the Cumberland Scrapbook Crop are

  welcoming an eccentric newbie into their fold. A

  self-proclaimed witch, Cookie Crandall can whip

  up a sumptuous vegan meal and rhapsodize about

  runes and moon phases with equal aplomb. She

  becomes fast friends with her fellow scrapbookers,

  including freelance reporter Annie, with whom she

  shares shallow roots in a community of established

  family trees. So when Cookie becomes the prime

  suspect in a series of bizarre murders, the croppers

  get scrappy and set out to clear her name . . .

  Annie starts digging and discovers that the victims

  each had strange runic patterns carved on their

  bodies—a piece of evidence that points the police

  in Cookie’s direction. Even her friends begin to

  doubt her innocence when they find an ornate,

  spiritual scrapbook that an alleged beginner like

  Cookie could never have crafted. As Annie and the

  croppers search for answers, they’ll uncover a

  shockingly wicked side of their once-quiet town—

  and a killer on the prowl for another victim . . .

  Spring is in the air, but the ladies of the

  Cumberland Creek Scrapbook Crop hardly have

  time to stop and smell the roses. Not when famed

  Irish dancer Emily McGlashen is found murdered

  in her studio just after the St. Patrick’s Day

  parade—and one of the Crop’s own members is the

  prime suspect. Vera’s dance studio may have

  suffered when Emily waltzed into town, but the

  croppers know she’s not a vengeful murderer.

  Lucky for her, co-scrapbooker Annie is a freelance

  reporter eager to vindicate her friend. What she

  discovers is a puzzling labyrinth of secrets that

  only add question marks to Emily’s murder. Just

  when it seems they’ve run out of clues, an antique

  scrapbook turns up and points the croppers in the

  right direction—and brings them face to face with

  a killer more twisted than a Celtic knot . . .

  Summer’s in full swing, and it’s time once again

  for the Cumberland Creek County Fair Pie

  Competition. DeeAnn Fields just knows this is her

  year to finally win with her brilliant apple green

  chili pie. But after the judges take one bite and spit

  it back out, ordering DeeAnn to leave at once, she’s

  baffled as to what went wrong . . . until she

  discovers someone sabotaged her pie.

  Banding together to find out who hated DeeAnn

  enough to ruin her chances of winning,

  the ladies of the Cumberland Scrapbook Crop

  scrap their summer plans to get to the bottom of

  this mystery so that they can return

  to what they do best—cropping and crafting!

  Christmas is just around the corner, and the ladies

  of the Cumberland Creek Scrapbook Crop are

  thrilled when Sheila wins first prize in a

  scrapbooking design contest: a ten-day scrapbook-

  themed cruise in the Caribbean. Vera and Paige

  decide to tag along, which should pose the perfect

  opportunity to learn some new techniques, mingle

  with fellow croppers, and get in some rest and

  relaxation before the chaos of Christmas. But

  when Sheila finds a famous crafter dead, and

  investigators determine she was poisoned, the

  luxury cruise veers toward disaster as Sheila

  becomes the number one suspect—or was she

  really the intended victim? Just as the croppers

  begin unwrapping the truth, a storm strands them

  at sea, and they’ll find it’s harder than ever to

  survive the holidays with a killer on deck . . .

  eKENSINGTON BOOKS are published by

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  119 West 40th Street

  New York, NY 10018

  Copyright © 2015 by Mollie Cox Bryan

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  eKensington is a trademark of Kensington Publishing Corp.

  Kensington and the K logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

  ISBN: 978-0-7582-9460-9

  First Electronic Edition: May 2015

 

 

 


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