A Basket of Trouble by Beth Groundwater is the third book in the “Claire Hanover” mystery series. Publisher: Midnight Ink, November 2013

A death at her brother’s stable ropes Claire into a basket of trouble

When gift basket designer Claire Hanover saddles up for the opening event at her brother Charley’s new riding stable, the last thing she expects is for Kyle Mendoza, one of the stable hands, to be found dead. Everyone assumes a horse trampled him, until it’s discovered that someone murdered Kyle before dragging him into a stall.

Charley’s troubles worsen when a rival stable owner steals his clients and Kyle’s family decides to sue him for negligence. Claire is determined to corral the killer and save her brother’s business. However, solving the mystery could be more difficult than finding a needle in a haystack . . . and maybe even deadly.

It’s been awhile since we’ve last seen Claire and boy am I glad she is back in the saddle as she is determined to save her brother’s business by any means necessary and if that means solving a murder, then so be it. With hot button topics interwoven in this engaging mystery, the author immediately pulled me in in this well-written drama that kept me on my toes as I could not put this book down and I had to know what happened next. This was a good read and I hope there are more Claire stories to tell.