Fairy Garden Mystery

Fairy garden store owner Courtney Kelly believes in inviting magic into your life. But when uninvited trouble enters her shop, she'll need more than a sprinkling of her imagination to solve a murder . . . Since childhood, Courtney has loved fairies. After her mother died when she was ten, she lost touch with that feeling of magic. A year ago, at age twenty-nine, she rediscovered it when she left her father's landscaping business to spread her wings and start a fairy garden business and teashop in beautiful Carmel, California. At Open Your Imagination, she teaches garden design and sells everything from fairy figurines to tinkling wind chimes and trickling fountains. Now she's starting a book club tea. But the light of the magical world she's created inside her shop is darkened one night when she discovers neighboring dog-grooming business owner Mick Watkins dead beside a fountain. To make matters worse, the police suspect Courtney of the crime. To clear her name and find the real killer, Courtney will have to wing it. But she's about to get a little help from an unexpected new friend…

Courtney Kelly has a shop full of delights, a cat named Pixie, a green thumb-and a magical touch when it comes to garden design. But in Carmel-by-the-Sea, things aren't all sweetness and fairy lights ... When Courtney's friend Wanda gets into a ponytail-pulling wrestling match in public with a nasty local art critic, Courtney stops the fight with the help of a garden hose. But Lana Lamar has a talent for escalating things and creating tension, which she succeeds in doing by threatening a lawsuit, getting into yet another scuffle-in the midst of an elegant fundraiser, no less-and lobbing insults around like pickleballs. Next thing Courtney knows, Lana is on the floor, stabbed with a decorative letter opener from one of Courtney's fairy gardens, and Wanda is standing by asking "What have I done?" But, the answer may not be as obvious as it seems, since Wanda is prone to sleepwalking and appears to be in a daze. Could she have risen from her nap and committed murder while unconscious? Or, is the guilty party someone else Lana's ticked off, like her long-suffering husband? To find out, Courtney will have to dig up some dirt...

The proprietor of a fairy garden and tea shop in Carmel-by-the-Sea, Courtney Kelly has an occasional side gig as a sleuth-with a sprinkling of magical assistance. . . . Courtney has thrown a few fairy garden parties-for kids. But if a local socialite is willing to dip into her trust fund for an old sorority sister's fortieth birthday bash, Courtney will be there with bells on. To make the job even more appealing, a famous actress, Farrah Lawson, is flying in for the occasion, and there's nothing like a celebrity cameo to raise a business's profile. Now Courtney has less than two weeks to paint a mural, hang up tinkling windchimes, plan party games, and conjure up all the details. While she works her magic, the hostess and her girlfriends head off for an indulgent spa day-which leads to a fateful facial for Farrah, followed by her mysterious death. Could the kindhearted eyebrow waxer who Farrah berated in public really be the killer, as the police suspect? Courtney thinks otherwise, and with the help of her imaginative sleuth fairy, sets out to dig up the truth behind this puzzling murder . . . Praise for Daryl Wood Gerber's A Sprinkling of Murder "Enchanting series launch from Agatha Award winner Gerber. . . . Cozy fans will wish upon a star for more." -Publishers Weekly "A winner. . . . Fans of Laura Childs' work will enjoy." -Booklist

Fairies are trending hard, especially when it comes to fairy garden décor in Walmart and Target and on Amazon. The latest installment in the nationally bestselling Daryl Wood Gerber's Fairy Garden mysteries is a perfect read for Laura Childs readers and all fans of whimsy and charm. With a theater foundation tea and an art show planned at Violet Vickers's estate, Courtney is hired to create charming fairy gardens for the event. It's not so charming, however, when her best friend Meaghan's ex-boyfriend turns out to be Violet's latest artistic protégé. Even worse, not long after Meaghan locks horns with him, his body is found in her yard, bludgeoned with an objet d'murder. There's a gallery of suspects, from an unstable former flame to an arts and crafts teacher with a sketchy past. But when the cops focus on Meaghan's business partner, who's like a protective older brother to her, and discover he also has a secret financial motive, Courtney decides to draw her own conclusions. Fearing they're missing the forest for the trees, and with some help from Fiona the sleuthing fairy, she hopes to make them see the light . . . Praise for Daryl Wood Gerber's A Sprinkling of Murder "Enchanting series launch from Agatha Award winner Gerber. . . . Cozy fans will wish upon a star for more." -Publishers Weekly "A winner. . . . Fans of Laura Childs' work will enjoy." -Booklist

Carmel-by-the-Sea garden shop owner Courtney Kelly sees things others can't-like fairies, and hidden motives for murder... Courtney is delighted when her tiny friend Fiona returns from the fairy realm, appearing at the base of a Cypress tree. When her Ragdoll cat, Pixie, emerges from her own portal, aka the cat door, the three set off for a busy day. Busier than usual, since Courtney has rented a small plot of land at the Flower Farm, where she hopes to grow her own supplies for her fairy-garden business. Plus, the annual Summer Blooms Festival is coming up, and Courtney has booked a booth... But the murder of Courtney's friend, Genevieve, casts a pall over the festival. Ever since Genevieve sold her floral business, she'd been building a career as an influencer. She was perennially opinionated-but in her new role she'd become surprisingly vicious, dissing local entrepreneurs with nasty posts and unwarranted bad reviews. That's landed a couple of Courtney's other friends on the suspect list, including Flower Farm owner Daphne Flores. And when a second victim is discovered, seeds of doubt about Daphne's innocence sprout in Courtney's mind. With only a germ of a clue, Courtney will have to overturn every rock to get the dirt on the real killer...