At the sound of raised voices, I hurried out of the kitchen to the lobby of the Three Sisters B&B. My younger sisters were glaring at each other over a half-empty box of flyers for the rescue-animal adoption event downtown we were sponsoring.

My next-younger sister, Em, demanded of our youngest sister, “Well? What’s wrong with this picture?”

“Nothing,” CJ said. “I just haven’t had time to deliver them all. I had to go pick up Noah at school before I finished. But I got half distributed, and I’m off to deliver the rest now.”

“That’s cutting it close,” Em said tightly. “The event is tomorrow morning. But that’s not the problem.” She reached into the box and held a flyer up so CJ could read it. “What does it say under the heading of our sponsor?”

“Just what it’s supposed to.” CJ grabbed the flyer out of Em’s hand and dropped it back in the box. “Three Sisters B&B.”

Em retrieved the paper. “Look again.”

CJ ‘s face fell. “Oops.”

That was my cue to intervene. “Oops, what?”

CJ handed me the offending flyer. “Oops, they printed our name as tree sisters instead of three sisters.”

I stifled a laugh. It was kind of funny. As long as I didn’t think of all the money we’d sunk into the event.

Em asked CJ, “Well? What are you going to do about it? I can’t believe you didn’t proofread it.”

Em would have checked it—she was the perfectionist in the family. She was also usually the peacemaker, but she was too upset for that today. Probably feeling guilty because it had been her idea to spend a large chunk of our advertising budget on this event, and it was starting to look like it might generate a negative return on investment. Not something she, as a financial advisor, could tolerate.

I had to step in before there was a murder even the incompetent town sheriff could solve. “I’m sure there’s a solution.”

“I know,” CJ said, avoiding Em’s eyes. “We could start a new business, supplying Jess’s boyfriend with wood for the barrels he makes. I love to play with chainsaws.”

Em was not amused. She was spluttering, unable to form a coherent sentence. That wasn’t like her at all. Unless this was just the final straw on top of some other stressful situation I didn’t know about.

“I think we’re all stretched thin enough.” In addition to running the B&B, CJ was raising a toddler, and Em and I were starting up financial and legal practices.

“I know,” CJ muttered. “Just trying to lighten the mood. If Em will watch Noah for me, and you’ll call the printer, I’ll go reclaim the flyers I distributed.”

It was a bit of a scramble, but the next day at the event, everyone complimented us for our sponsorship, with promises to refer business to us. The local printer, who wasn’t to blame for the error, had quickly made some lovely stickers with the B&B logo, which Em, CJ, and I applied to the bottom of the flyers, covering the typo.

And yet, we were barely home after the event before CJ and Em started arguing again. I could tell it wasn’t serious, and they could resolve the matter on their own. Probably by deciding the real person they were annoyed with was me.

I headed for the kitchen where there was always more prep work to do for the next day’s breakfast. It was as constant in our lives as sisterly squabbles and the love that could weather even the worst of arguments.

Giveaway: Leave a comment below for your chance to win Old-Fashioned Holiday Homicide, the third Bourbon B&B Mystery, for either Kindle or Nook. The giveaway will end November 22, 2024. Good luck everyone!

Old-Fashioned Holiday Homicide, A Bourbon B&B Mystery Book 3
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release: November 2024
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link

From USA Today bestselling author Gin Jones comes homicide for the holidays…

Jess Walker is with her sisters for Christmas for the first time in many years, but it’s a working holiday at the Three Sisters B&B in the heart of Kentucky’s bourbon country. Jess, Em, and CJ are expecting a guest who has long dreamed of running her own B&B, so she’ll be playing hostess while her extended family will join her as additional guests.

Except the sisters end up doing most of the hard work, and things keep going awry. Jess would swear the holiday is jinxed. And things go from difficult to downright dangerous, when CJ delivers her bourbon cranberry sauce to the local gift shop…and finds the owner dead! The sheriff immediately jumps to the wrong conclusions, and the sisters are determined to get justice for CJ’s best wholesale customer. Suspects are scarce though, and the B&B’s guests are spooked by the murder and threatening to cancel their booking.

Can the sisters solve the murder while still giving their guests an Old-Fashioned Holiday?

About the author
Gin Jones became a USA Today bestselling author after too many years of being a lawyer who specialized in ghostwriting for other lawyers. She much prefers writing fiction, since she isn’t bound by boring facts and can indulge her sense of humor without getting thrown into jail for contempt of court. In her spare time, Gin makes quilts, grows garlic, and advocates for rare disease patients.