Hey, y’all! My name is Winona Mae Montgomery, but you can go on and call me Winnie. I live on my Granny’s orchard in the most beautiful slice of country you’ve ever seen. The town is Blossom Valley, West Virginia, nestled right down deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains. We’ve got us a national park, plenty of river access and a community of salt of the earth folks who love this place like I do. Especially my Granny Smythe. She and Grampy raised me when their teenage daughter, my mother, ran off after having me. We lost Grampy about four years back, so it’s just me and Granny now. We’re tight. We even look alike. Folks like to say I got her face and Grampy’s mouth. I only use the mouth when I have to, like to stand up for folks and keep things right, but I’m also not afraid to when the time comes. And I tend to ask a lot of questions, but that’s not on account of the big mouth. That’s just because of my curious mind.

Most nights, you can find me at the Sip N Sup. I’ve been waiting tables there since high school, so I know most everyone, if not by name, then by face and favorite pie. I try to pay attention to the details, which makes me a good waitress and an excellent student. I’m also a business major at the local community college. Have been for about ten years now. I’m taking the courses one or two at a time so I can pay cash for them. I’ve dreamed of opening a cider shop in the historic Mail Pouch barn on Granny’s property for ages, so I didn’t want to be in debt before I got started. Funny how life always has a way of changing our plans.

Granny recently asked for my opinion on her finances, and my cider shop timeline got a major boost. I’d always known Grampy was the business mind, and Granny was the heart of their orchard, but I hadn’t realized how little Granny knew about numbers and budgets. After four years without him, the orchard was going under fast, so I had to do something before she lost her home and business, not to mention her life’s work and legacy. She and Grampy bought the orchard with money from their wedding more than forty years ago. Losing the business would be like losing him all over again, and neither of us were up for that. So, I made an appointment with a loan officer from the local bank, hoping he’d see the merit in my business proposal and help me get the cider shop opened before I graduate. In fact, the sooner the better. The added income would save Granny’s orchard and provide a place to sell her goods and produce year round. It was the obvious solution. But then life went and messed up those plans too. Messed them up in a massive, awful, horrible way.

While I was showing the banker around, we stumbled upon Granny’s longtime nemesis in our cider house. She was lodged in the cider press to be more specific, and she wasn’t breathing. Granny became the new sheriff’s number one suspect, and when my big mouth tried to set him straight, I became the “most likely accomplice.” The banker high tailed it on outta there, and I was left with another mess to sort.

Now, I’m spending my days trying to clear Granny’s name, save the orchard, open the cider shop on my own and hopefully find the real killer before Granny winds up in jail. The whole thing would be a lot easier if I didn’t also have to dodge the sheriff at every turn, but he thinks he knows better than me how to get to the bottom of things when he doesn’t even know the difference between Carpenter’s Hollow and Wylie Fork. I know everything about my town, the land and the people, and I’m going to prove it by finding the real killer before Christmas. Pardon my French, but Sheriff Wise can take his “obstruction” threats and go stuff a stocking.

You can read more about Winnie in Apple Cider Slaying, the first book in the NEW “Cider Shop” cozy mystery series, released October 29, 2019.

Apples are at the core of the family business run by Winona Mae Montgomery and her Granny Smythe. But this year’s crop is unseasonably ripe with murder . . .

ONE ROTTEN APPLE

Blossom Valley, West Virginia, is home to Smythe Orchards, Winnie and her Granny’s beloved twenty-five-acre farm and family business. But any way you slice it, it’s struggling. That’s why they’re trying to drum up business with the “First Annual Christmas at the Orchard,” a good old-fashioned holiday festival with enough delicious draw to satisfy apple-picking locals and cider-loving tourists alike—until the whole endeavor takes a sour turn when the body of Nadine Cooper, Granny’s long-time, grudge-holding nemesis, is found lodged in the apple press. Now, with Granny the number one suspect, Winnie is hard-pressed to prove her innocence before the real killer delivers another murder . . .

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About the author
Julie Anne Lindsey is an award-winning and national bestselling author of mystery and romantic suspense. She’s published more than twenty-five novels since her debut in 2013 and currently writes series as herself, as well as under multiple pen names, for Harlequin, Kensington, Sourcebooks and Crooked Lane Books. When she’s not writing the stories that keep her up at night, Julie stays busy in Ohio with her extremely patient husband and three amazing kids. Today she hopes to make someone smile. One day she plans to change the world. Learn more about Julie at julieannelindsey.com.

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