Published Date: December 4, 2018
By: Carla Vergot
About the Book:
Quirky Lily Barlow idolizes the fictional bounty hunter Stephanie Plum from the Janet Evanovich series and longs for that kind of freewheeling lifestyle―a life where she makes her own rules. The problem is, there are no criminals or noteworthy crimes to speak of in her small and stifling hometown of Marshall, VA.
As a fallback, the plucky college student plans to escape Yawnsville, where she was born and raised, by pursuing a degree at the University of Virginia. To her, the fact that she has switched majors multiple times and remains currently undecided is not at all important. However, to her consternation, those college plans are put on hold when she is called home to help resuscitate her family’s business, Poppy’s Bakery, after her father suffers a heart attack.
First things first. She doesn’t want anybody jumping to the conclusion that she’s coming home for good; she didn’t get the baking gene, and she reliably burns anything she puts in an oven. Still, you can see how people would assume she would take over for her dad. To squash that rumor before it becomes historic record, she rents a little efficiency garage on the edge of town.
Her new landlady, Miss Delphine Walker, is a senior spitfire in floral print. She’s stubborn, independent, and knows her mind. Sure, she and her dog, Velcro, are likable enough, but Lily has a vivid imagination and a knack for turning everyday occurrences into true crime plots. It’s pretty clear to her that this old bat is hiding something. Lily jumps from one crazy conclusion to the next until finally determining that Miss Delphine is a murderer―and the body may or may not be buried on her property.
Author Bio:
Carla Vergot has been writing this book (albeit, in her head) since her undergraduate days at North Carolina State University. From there, without writing a word of the story, she worked in fundraising, obtained a master’s at George Mason University, taught special education for several years, and finally, after all this time…wrote a book. For fun, she and her husband drive Jeeps off road, camp, and grow organic vegetables. They have two dogs, Booker and Marble, who keep things interesting. Carla suffers from TMA (Toasted Marshmallow Addiction), and she heads up a spider relocation program, meaning she habitually moves spiders and other bugs out of harm’s way. Carla lives in Haymarket, Virginia.