Digging Up Trouble: A Sweet Fiction Bookshop Mystery

Aspiring writer Lexi Jones, the 27-year-old narrator of Crowe’s diverting debut and series launch, manages the Sweet Fiction Bookshop in Confection, Ore. Lexi doesn’t get along with her ornery neighbor, Gil Cloutier, who complains that Lexi’s “border collie–pit mix,” Cookie, digs up his garden. One night, Lexi works on a scene for her suspense novel in which she imagines a serial killer using a pipe to bludgeon to death a stand-in for Gil. The next morning, Cookie slips into Gil’s yard, where Lexi finds the dog with a copper pipe in her mouth. Nearby is what looks like a shallow grave—with Gil’s body inside. Already at the scene is Det. Chad Berg, to whom Lexi admits she quarreled with Gil the day before. The detective suggests she might need a lawyer. Fortunately, there are plenty of other suspects (including Confection Garden Club members who might have wanted to eliminate Gil because he was the shoo-in winner for the $15,000 prize in the upcoming best garden contest), and the members of Lexi’s book club join her in some amateur sleuthing. A second murder raises the stakes, and the relationship between Lexi and Chad generates some romantic heat. Cozy readers will look forward to Lexi and Cookie’s next adventure. Agent: Nicole Resciniti, Seymour Agency. (Oct.)