Three Can Keep a Secret

In the sequel to Till the Cows Come Home, dairy farmer Stella Crown continues to mourn the loss of her father figure, Howie Archer, who served the Crown family as farm hand and friend for decades. Even grief-stricken, Stella realizes she cannot continue tending to her rural Bucks County, Pennsylvania, farm alone; therefore, she hires a pretty Mennonite widow, Lucy Lapp. The hardworking, quiet Lapp and her 8-year-old daughter Tess move onto Royalcrest Farm.

But is the solemn Lucy too good to be true? Soon Stella begins to have doubts about blushing and awkward Lucy due to an anonymous telephone call and some inconsistencies in Lucy’s story. Some nasty vandalism aimed at Lucy begins to make Stella wonder about Lucy’s old life. How was show more it that Lucy’s husband died? Were the circumstances as shady as the anonymous caller made out and was that what made Lucy flee Lancaster, Pennsylvania? Or could it be just a healthy desire to get away from her in-laws, particularly Lucy’s controlling fundamentalist father-in-law?

Meanwhile, Stella’s biker buddy Lenny Spruce fears something from his outlaw motorcycle past. Threats, attempted break-ins and worse convince Stella she needs to persuade him to reveal the truth. But Lenny continues to stubbornly keep his secrets, no matter how dangerous.

Stella continues pretty prickly, but, for some reason, I find Stella more tolerable than I did in the first book. Stella’s more forgiving of others, and she seems less judgmental here than she was in Till the Cows Come Home. While I found Stella abrasive and unlikable in the series’ debut, she proves herself a good friend to Lenny and a selfless friend to others.

Kudos to Judy Clemens for serving up a cup of the milk of human kindness to Stella. She — and the readers — are better off for it. show less

#2 in the Stella Crown mystery series featuring the amateur sleuth who also is a dairy farmer. Stella sets out to begin life anew after the events of the first book left her good friend and farmhand Howie dead, and herself recovering from a serious motorcycle accident. The first order of business is to hire a new hand. Enter Lucy, a young widowed woman with a little girl, who seems to know her way around a barn and whom Stella likes immediately. But when an anonymous caller warns her off Lucy and there's a visit from Child Protective Services--and then someone paints nasty graffiti directed at Lucy on Stella's barn, Stella begins to wonder if she made the right choice in hiring her. Added to that mystery is Stella's biker friend Lenny, show more a big teddy bear of a man who it seems has a checkered past which is now coming back to haunt him. Attempted break-ins at his store and home and a brutal attack on his business partner devastate Lenny as he works to confront his demons.

I really enjoy this series; the writing style is great, it reads quickly and smoothly and I like the characterizations, too, and am learning a lot about the Mennonite culture--although Stella isn't Mennonite, many of the characters in her series are. The mystery wasn't too much of a mystery in this one, and I'm getting a little weary of Stella's apparently emotionally-stunted personality (for someone so strong and independent, she has a hard time facing personal things) but I still enjoyed it a lot and have put the next one on my library list as they are hard to come by at PBS. show less