Boy howdy, as my aunt Adele says, does Indiana ever heat up in August. We are having some kind of Midwestern summer weather. The humidity is about a thousand per cent. The minute you get out of the shower, you feel like you need another one. And, as Lieutenant Buck Bird is fond of mentioning, it’s hotter than a goat’s butt in a pepper patch.

I still don’t have AC in my country store, Pans ‘N Pancakes. Usually the ceiling fans – up there on the original stamped tin ceilings – do the trick, that and a cross breeze through the windows, but not always.

We decided to serve a cold cucumber soup as a special for lunch today instead of something hot. It’s super refreshing, with buttermilk and fresh dill all blended up with cucumbers and a bit of seasoning, topped with a dollop of sour cream. My friend Lou and I ride our bikes out to Lake Lemon to swim, too.

She and a particularly hunky B&B guest of mine are starting to fall for each other, which is way nice. He’s a lawyer, so he’s smart, too. But I’m a little worried he’s getting involved in this protest of Adele’s. A developer wants to raze one of the prettiest hilltops in the county to build a fancy resort, and Adele and her friend Vera are starting to talk about chaining themselves to trees up there.

With this kind of sticky weather, tempers get kind of uncomfortable, too. I just hope everybody stays calm and safe. The last thing South Lick needs is another murder.

Readers, what do you do to cool off in the summer?


You can read more about Robbie and her friends in Strangled Eggs and Ham, the sixth book in the “Country Store” cozy mystery series, coming June 25, 2019.

Robbie Jordan’s rustic country store is growing in popularity. But when a dead body appears, it turns out that Robbie’s home-style cooking attracts hungry customers—and murder!

While Robbie scrambles through breakfast orders for her expanding clientele at Pans ‘N Pancakes, tempers run as high as the sticky August heat in South Lick, Indiana. Real-estate developer Fiona Closs plans to build a towering luxury resort at one of the most scenic hilltops in Brown County, and not everyone can see the sunny side of the imposing proposition—including Robbie’s furious Aunt Adele, who doesn’t waste a minute concocting protests and road blockades. When tensions boil over and a vocal protester is silenced forever at the resort site, Robbie ditches the griddle to catch the killer. But if slashed tires are any indication, she’ll need to crack this case before her own aunt gets served something deadly next . . .

Includes Recipes for You to Try!

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About the author
Edith Maxwell writes the Quaker Midwife Mysteries, the Local Foods Mysteries, and award-winning short crime fiction. As Maddie Day she writes the Country Store Mysteries and the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries. Maxwell, with seventeen novels in print and four more completed, has been nominated for an Agatha Award six times. She lives north of Boston with her beau and two elderly cats, and gardens and cooks when she isn’t killing people on the page or wasting time on Facebook. Please find her at edithmaxwell.com, on Instagram, and at the Wicked Authors blog.

All comments are welcomed.

Thanks to Maddie Day for donating a print copy of Strangled Eggs and Ham. Contest ends June 27, 2019 and is limited to U.S. residents. Please leave comment in box below. The winner will be notified by email (so check your spam folder). Good luck everyone!