I’ve been told I’m lucky. Most of the time I don’t feel that way. My husband Brian was killed in a car crash—I survived but my legs have been put back together with titanium and screws. So you can probably see why I don’t always feel that luck is on my side.

I’m hoping that changes. I used to spend summers at my grandmother’s house in Orchardville, Pennsylvania where she lived with my great-uncle, Stan. I hadn’t been back there for many years because of a rift between my mother and grandmother. I found out Uncle Stan passed away recently and much to my surprise, he left the house and his orchard to me. After I got over the shock, I decided that this was just what I needed. A new beginning.

One of the best things about moving to Orchardville was reconnecting with my childhood best friend, Marguerite Yost. She owns the café that used to be her mother’s. The food is delicious and the coffee bar rivals anything you’d find in a big city.

It wasn’t easy leaving the life that Brian and I built together, but I keep hearing his voice in my head telling me it’s time to move on. Back in Pittsburgh, I managed a cider house and Brian and I had talked about opening our own someday. Now that I own an orchard, it’s finally possible. Carl Randolph, the man who ran the orchard for my uncle, has been a huge help. He restored the old barn on the property with the help of a bunch of townsfolk, along with Daniel Martinez, who owns the orchard next to mine. Daniel’s a little mysterious and I don’t know his story. Not yet, anyway.

A typical day for me right now is getting the cidery ready. There’s a lot to do yet. There are rough sawn boards to nail to the walls, a bathroom and a bar to frame, not to mention installing the fermentation tanks when they arrive. Carl lined up the electrician and the plumber to get things ready for them. When I arrived at the barn one morning, Carl and Jack Riggs, the plumber, were having a disagreement about something. It doesn’t appear to be about the cidery but Jack wouldn’t talk about it. When I mentioned it to Daniel, he said that Carl and Jack don’t always see eye to eye on things. I just hope it’s nothing serious.

I’ll ask Carl about it when I see him this morning. I’m on my way now. He promised to show me around the orchard and teach me about the different trees and varieties of apples, peaches, and pears. It should be interesting.

That’s odd. I just reached his cabin and the front door is open. I can hear a radio blasting. I hope everything is all right…

Deadly To The Core, A Cider House Mystery Book #1
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release: January 2024
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link

Perfect for fans of Amanda Flower and Julie Anne Lindsey, when Kate Mulligan inherits her great uncle’s fruit orchard, she quickly realizes that apples aren’t the only thing that can have rotten cores.

After losing her husband in a terrible car crash, thirty-five-year-old Kate is left to pick up the pieces of her life alone. Although she has physically recovered, she worries her spirit never will. But when she learns that she has inherited a fruit orchard in a small town just outside Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, from her great uncle Stan, she takes this as an opportunity ripe for the picking. Kate knew immediately what to do with it: open a cider house. Her hopeful plans fall far from the tree when she finds the body of the orchard manager, Carl Randolph, leaving her to figure out who is at the core of this murder.

She had been in correspondence with Carl, who had agreed with her brilliant idea of opening a cider house. But not everyone is so quick to buy what she was selling—Uncle Stan’s lawyer, Robert Larabee, paints a less rosy financial outlook of the orchard’s past, present, and future.

Kate discovers that Carl had large, unexplained deposits to his bank account and it becomes clear that either he was blackmailing someone, or someone was paying him to keep quiet. Meanwhile, Kate and her neighbors receive offers to buy their property from a mysterious buyer. And there’s more than meets the eye with the neighboring orchard owner, Daniel Martinez, although Kate can’t quite put her finger on if it’s sweet or sour.

Will she be able to pick out the bad apple among the bunch before it’s too late?

About the author
Joyce Tremel was a police secretary for ten years and more than once envisioned the demise of certain co-workers, but settled on writing as a way to keep herself out of jail. She is the author of the award winning Brewing Trouble mystery series. She also writes the Homefront News Mysteries under the pen name Joyce St. Anthony.

As a history buff, she’s made many visits to the Gettysburg area and discovered the wonderful hard cider made with fruit from the local Adams County orchards. After a brainstorming session wondering “what if,” the Cider House mysteries were born.