Doing It at the Dixie Dew

Moose’s delightful first cozy, winner of the Malice Domestic Competition for Best First Traditional Mystery Novel, stars Beth McKenzie, who returns to her hometown of Littleboro, N.C., to open the Dixie Dew Bed-and-Breakfast. Her first night in business, Beth is dismayed to find 80-plus-year-old Lavinia Lovingood lying dead on the floor of Miss Lavinia’s locked room. Beth is even more alarmed when the death is ruled a homicide, and she knows that Littleboro’s police chief, Oswald DelGardo, has no experience with murder investigations. If she’s going to save the Dixie Dew, she’ll have to find out who wanted her elderly guest dead, and sets out to do just that with the help of her best friend, Malinda Jones, and her hunky handyman, Scott Smith. After the discovery of a second murder victim, Beth herself becomes a target. Little old ladies in gloves and hats, financial shenanigans, a large rabbit, and the fishbowl life of a small town add to the fun. (May)