Breezy in tone and action, cozy in style and readability. Chock full of small-town-isms: Now, in a small town, many things are Automatically Known. Like who is cheating, who is lying, who is purely sweet, and who is just pretending. … I reckon all of us in a small town trail around our invisible mantles of family history.

Josie Toadfern inherited the local laundromat from her uncle, along with his house and autistic son, Guy, who lives in a care center nearby. She sells the house, puts the proceeds in a trust fund for Guy, and moves into the apartment over her laundromat in Paradise, Ohio. The biggest employer in town is the family-owned Breitenstrater Pie Company; and pies are at the heart of this mystery.

All sorts of Paradisites inhabit the pages of this story, from quirky to endearing, friend to foe, black sheep to blue blood. And if a fun, fast read isn't enough, the back pages are stuffed full of Stain-Busting secrets, so – there you go! (

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countrylife | Sep 7, 2011 |

The Breitenstraters are big fish in the small pond of Paradise, Ohio. Their pie company is the town's largest employer. Older brother Alan runs the family business, while eccentric younger brother Cletus heads up a fireworks company on the outskirts of town. One brother plans a big announcement that will affect the town's future, while the other brother plans an announcement that will change the way the town looks at its past. Local laundromat owner and stain expert Josie Toadfern gets swept into the events. Will she be able to put things right in time to salvage the town's Fourth of July celebrations?

This is an enjoyable cozy for someone who likes local and family history. The heroine is likeable and she doesn't have annoying habits like so many other cozy heroines do. She's kind, smart, and funny, and she's tolerant of the eccentricities of her family and neighbors. I wouldn't mind spending more time in Paradise, and I'll be on the lookout for more of the books in this series. (

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cbl_tn | Jul 3, 2011 |

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Series (with order)

Josie Toadfern Stain-Busting Mystery (book 2)

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Death by Deep Dish Pie

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Dedication

To Katherine, who inherited the gift of persistence and uses it well

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Secrets have a way of taking on lives of their own.

Quotations

Now, in a small town, many things are Automatically Known. Like who is cheating, who is lying, who is purely sweet, and who is just pretending.

I reckon all of us in a small town trail around our invisible mantles of family history.

Getting caught up on the laundry, I've learned, can do that to a person. There's a sense of order a person gets from having all the laundry washed, dried, folded, and put away. It's kind of like keeping the flotsam and jetsam of life at bay.

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Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0060537973, Mass Market Paperback)

Meet Nina Quinn, garden landscaper extraordinaire and very amateur sleuth, in this charming cosy series that is perfect for fans of Carolyn Hart.

Nina Quinn has had enough of her cheating cop husband. His affair with his partner has driven her close to the edge––and him out of their home. Nina, the owner of Taken By Surprise, a landscaping business that specializes in surprise garden makeovers, already has too much on her plate––her delinquent stepson has let his pet snake loose in the house, and her nosy mother won't stop pestering her to get her bridesmaid's dress fitted for her sister's upcoming nuptials. But it's the strange disappearance of gardening tools––including a very expensive set of hoes––that really throws a wrench in things. And when she gets a call that her oldest friend's father–in–law, a beloved old man who introduced her to landscaping, has been murdered, Nina knows that it's time to start digging for clues to the frustrating, mysterious, and downright evil things that have disturbed her peaceful Ohio hometown.

(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:59:28 -0500)

▾Library descriptions

A Toadfish mystery.