Murder and Healing

The Secret, Book & Scone Society by Ellery Adams (2017) – In a small town in western North Carolina, four women bond over personalized scones and shared secrets. Each bears a burden that sets them apart from the folks around them, until the death of a real estate investor strikes them as wrong. Together they will find healing while drawing the attention of a dangerous killer.

Why I Liked It – Great characters, a wonderful mystery, and I’d kill for one of those scones!

What a great combination of appeals! Ellery Adams weaves a wonderful story with unique characters, a great mystery, and adds the benefit of mouthwatering descriptions of baked goods! It’s mid-April, and this is an early candidate for my best books of the year list. It drew me in far enough that I’d sit and read rather than do other things (some of which were even interesting!)

Nora Pennington arrives in the town of Magnolia Springs with an obvious mystery. Her body and face show signs of serious burn injuries, but offers no explanation. She runs a bookshop where people can come with their own problems and leave with books to help them understand those issues. Nora calls it “bibliotherapy”. Nearby is the Gingerbread House, a small bakery run by Hester Winthrop. Hester is the youngest of the quartet, with a sunny personality that covers her own secrets. She offers a little specialty healing by creating custom scones meant to help ease her customers’ burdens as well. June Dixon is an employee t the Miracle Springs Thermal Pools, the historic healing waters of the town. Last, but not least, is Estella Sadler, the small town’s “notorious” bad girl. Smart and fully aware of her influence on men, she owns the Magnolia Salon and Spa. Her secrets seem obvious, but they aren’t. Her specialty is helping women find their personal beauty. They are aware of each other, but have perfected social bubbles that keep people from approaching too closely.

Then Neil Parrish is killed by a train.

Parrish is one partner in a housing development that has sprung up at the edge of this quiet little town. The local sheriff isn’t looking to make his life difficult and pushes for a verdict of death by suicide. It’s a determination that doesn’t sit well with the quartet. Both Nora and Hester had spoken to him, and neither bought the official explanation. The connection over the murder becomes a mutual support group that becomes something far more special.

I love Adams’s takes her time to unravel both the murder and the four mysteries of the women. Those secrets are deeply buried and guarded by shame, regret, and anger. They shouldn’t just leap out into the open at the first opportunity. The murder plot is woven into a larger scheme that will muddy the waters for these women.

As I said, this book grabbed me in a way that few have recently. I enjoyed the characters and intend to go in search of the second book in the series, “The Whispered Word”. The first book in the series reminds me of how much I love wandering through libraries and bookstores. The author quotes Virginia Woolf at the beginning of the novel, and it’s worth quoting here:

“Books are everywhere; and always the same sense of adventure fills. Second-hand books are wild books, homeless books they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack. Besides, in this random miscellaneous company we may rub against some completes stranger who will, with luck, turn into the best friends we have n the world,”

Rating – **** Recommended