The Wiles of Watermelon

Title: THE WILES OF WATERMELON
Author: Lynette Sowell
Publisher: Heartsong Presents Mysteries
2008
ISBN: 978-1-60260-072-0
Genre: Inspirational/cozy mystery

Andi Hartley has married Ben, the man of her dreams, and is ready to settle into life on their newly acquired farmland. Someone had planted watermelons in their field, and when Andi’s cat, Spot, escapes, Andi chases her to the watermelon field and finds a skeletal finger, still attached to the hand…

The bones turn out to belong to Andi’s Aunt Jewel, a woman believed to have run away with her boyfriend over thirty years earlier. The very next day, Ben’s boss turns up dead. Ben is considered a suspect, because he is the one who discovers the body. Andi knows her husband wouldn’t have killed his boss, and she is convinced that the crime was done by someone who holds the secrets to what happened to Aunt Jewel all those years earlier. Is Andi about to unearth a murderer?

THE WILES OF WATERMELON is the second book in Lynette’s A Scents of Murder Mystery series, but it easily stands alone. I enjoyed reconnecting with Andi and getting to know her and the other characters a little better. Usually I have no trouble figuring out who-dun-it early on, but this time I figured out who-dun-it, but not who that person really was. It made for an interesting twist.

The faith message is rather weak, but still present, and I don’t really feel all the strands were neatly tied up at the end of this book. I still have some questions about what happened. However, it was an enjoyable read and I am looking forward to the third and final book in this series. $6.95. 254 pages.