Til Dirt Do Us Part by Edith Maxwell is the second book in the “Local Foods” mystery series. Publisher: Kensington, May 2014

The produce is local–and so is the crime–when long-simmering tensions lead to murder following a festive dinner on Cam Flaherty’s farm. It’ll take a sleuth who knows the lay of the land to catch this killer. But no one ever said Cam wasn’t willing to get her hands dirty. . .

Autumn has descended on Westbury, Massachusetts, but the mood at the Farm-to-Table Dinner in Cam’s newly built barn is unseasonably chilly. Local entrepreneur Irene Burr made a lot of enemies with her plan to buy Westbury’s Old Town Hall and replace it with a textile museum–enough enemies to fill out a list of suspects when the wealthy widow turns up dead in a neighboring farm.

Even an amateur detective like Cam can figure out that one of the resident locavores went loco–at least temporarily–and settled a score with Irene. But which one? With the Fall harvest upon her, Cam must sift through a bushelful of possible killers that includes Irene’s estranged stepson, her disgruntled auto mechanic, and a fellow CSA subscriber who seems suspiciously happy to have the dead woman out of the way.

The closer she gets to weeding out the culprit, the more Cam feels like someone is out to cut her harvest short. But to keep her own body out of the compost pile, she’ll have to wrap this case up quickly.

This fast-paced and well-crafted whodunit was very enjoyable and satisfied my reading pleasure. I like the pace of the mystery as it had me quickly turning the pages to see what happens next. The author did a great job in keeping me on my toes with several twists and turns that pushed this drama up a notch. I like that Cam is determine to make a go of her business venture while fending off a murderer who keeps knocking on her door. With a colorful cast of characters and good dialogue, this second novel is a delightful read and I look forward to more adventures with Cam and her friends.