Food Lovers' Village Mystery

The town of Jewel Bay, Montana-known as a Food Lovers' Village-is obsessed with homegrown and homemade Montana fare. So when Erin Murphy takes over her family's century-old general store, she turns it into a boutique market filled with local delicacies. But Erin's freshly booming business might go rotten when a former employee turns up dead . . . Murphy's Mercantile, known as the Merc, has been a staple in Jewel Bay for over a hundred years. To celebrate their recent makeover as a gourmet food market, Erin has organized a town festival, Festa di Pasta, featuring the culinary goods of Jewel Bay's finest including her mother Fresca's delicious Italian specialties. But Erin's sweet success is soured when the shop's former manager, Claudette, is found dead behind the Merc on the Festa's opening night. With rival chef James Angelo stirring up rumors that Fresca's sauce recipes were stolen from Claudette, Erin's mother is under scrutiny. Now Erin will have to hunt down some new suspects, or both her family and her store might wind up in hot water . . .

Gourmet food market owner Erin Murphy is determined to get Jewel Bay, Montana's, scrumptious local fare some national attention. But her scheme for culinary celebrity goes up in flames when the town's big break is interrupted by murder... Food Preneurs, one of the hottest cooking shows on TV, has decided to feature Jewel Bay in an upcoming episode, and everyone in town is preparing for their close-ups, including the crew at the Glacier Mercantile, a.k.a. the Merc. Not only is Erin Murphy busy remodeling her courtyard into a relaxing dining area, she's organizing a steak-cooking competition between three of Jewel Bay's hottest chefs to be featured on the program. But Erin's plans get scorched when one of the contending cooks is found dead. With all the drama going on behind the scenes, it's hard to figure out who didn't have a motive to off the saucy contestant. Now, to keep the town's reputation from crashing and burning on national television, Erin will have to grill some suspects to smoke out the killer...

In an attempt to woo tourists to Jewel Bay and cheer up the townies, Erin Murphy, manager of the specialty local foods market known as the Merc, is organizing the First Annual Food Lovers' Film Festival, filled with classic foodie flicks and local twists on favorite movie treats. But when her partner in planning, painter Christine Vandeberg, is found dead only days before the curtain rises, Erin suspects someone is attempting to stop the films from rolling. To make matters worse, Nick-Erin's brother and Christine's beau-has top billing on the suspect list. Convinced her brother is innocent and determined that the show must go on, Erin has to find who's really to blame before Nick gets arrested or the festival gets shut down. But the closer she gets to the killer, the more likely it becomes that she'll be the next person cut from the program . . .

Erin Murphy, manager of Glacier Mercantile (a.k.a. the Merc), is tuning up for Jewel Bay's annual Jazz Festival. Between keeping the Merc's shelves stocked with Montana's tastiest local fare and hosting the festival's kick-off concert, Erin has her hands full. Discord erupts when jazz guitarist Gerry Martin plummets to his death from the rocks above the Jewel River. The one-time international sensation had fallen out of sync with festival organizers, students, and performers. Was his death an accident-or did someone even the score? Erin investigates despite the warning signs not to get involved. And when the killer attacks, she orchestrates her efforts into one last crescendo, hoping to avoid a deadly finale.

In Jewel Bay, all is merry and bright. At Murphy's Mercantile, AKA the Merc, manager Erin Murphy is ringing in the holiday season with food, drink, and a new friend: Merrily Thornton. A local girl gone wrong, Merrily's turned her life around. But her parents have publicly shunned her, and they nurse a bitterness that chills Erin. When Merrily goes missing and her boss discovers he's been robbed, fingers point to Merrily-until she's found dead, a string of lights around her neck. The clues and danger snowball from there. Can Erin nab the killer-and keep herself in one piece-in time for a special Christmas Eve?

In her Food Lovers' Village Mysteries, Agatha Award-winning author Leslie Budewitz introduces us to Jewel Bay, a tight-knit Montana community that thrives on tourism and farm-to-table fare. Featuring Erin Murphy, beloved proprietor of the Merc-a century-old general store converted into a local foods market-each book brings us closer to the folks who call Jewel Bay home, and the cunning culprits in their midst. In this delicious new collection of five short stories and one novella, she takes us further into the heart of Jewel Bay-from the playhouse to the Merc, from funerals to food festivals-with equal parts humor, suspense, and compassion, and no shortage of murder to spice up the menu . . .