Crime and Cherry Pits by Amanda Flower

Available: February 27, 2024

Rating: 4 stars

Shiloh is participating in the Cherry Farm Market in Traverse City, the first orchard from Cherry Glen to be allowed into the market in many years. She gets a fancy new booth and makes huge batches of baked goods and soap to sell alongside their cherries. Everything is going great until her cousin Stacey's recent ex-boyfriend drops dead in the middle of the cherry pit spitting contest.

I have enjoyed this series. The Bellamy family farm is fun with its angry chickens and mini-sheep and cherry orchard. I like Shiloh pretty well, though she should stand up for herself more than she does (her cousin certainly does not have that problem). Huckleberry is adorable, though the book never mentions how loud a pug is! But in this book we spend very little time at the farm, most of the story taking place at the Market, which we don't see much of. For that reason, I was a bit disappointed with the setting and look forward to being back on the farm in the next book.

The investigation in this book was really good (though the people left to work her booth while she was out investigating may not agree!) There are a number of suspicious suspects and Shiloh has her work cut out for her trying to whittle down the list, which includes not only Stacey, but also Quinn.

Things head up with Sheriff Milan, and seem to be fizzling out with Quinn (though his parents are certainly not cooling off on their contempt for Shiloh and their attempts to keep Hazel away from her). This is also a major bomb dropped at the very end of the story... no spoilers but know that when you finish this book you'll be anxious to read the next!

Overall, this is a reliably good series that I have enjoyed reading and look forward to continuing. Thank you to the author, publisher, and to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.