Peach Clobbered: A Georgia B&B Mystery

This bright and breezy series launch from Gerard (the Black Cat Bookshop mysteries, as Ali Brandon) introduces Nina (pronounced Nine-ah) Fleet, a divorcée who moves from Atlanta to Cymbeline, Ga., where she impulsively buys a historic Queen Anne house. Soon afterward, Harry Westcott, an aspiring actor and current mascot for an ice cream company, arrives at her door dressed as a penguin, claiming that the executor of his great-aunt’s will wasn’t authorized to sell Nina the house. After he leaves, Cymbeline’s mayor arrives with the Sisters of Perpetual Poverty. Developer Gregory Bainbridge, the most hated man in town, has evicted the nuns from their convent. The mayor offers to fast-track permission for Nina to turn her house into a B&B if she agrees to immediately take in the nuns. When Bainbridge turns up dead wearing a penguin costume, things get complicated. Gerard provides it all: well-drawn characters, pithy dialogue, and enough twists and turns and shifts of motive to keep cozy fans happily playing the whodunit game. Agent: Josh Getzler, HSG Agency. (July)