LEAVE TOMORROW BEHIND

A folksy fair turned deadly forces an unconventional dairy farmer to solve more than just a murder to save the day.

Planning a wedding is what most girls dream of, but dairy farmer Stella Crown isn’t most girls. She’s much more involved with helping young protégés like her employee Zach make a good showing at the 4-H competition at the county fair. Stella leaves the wedding planning to Miranda, her future sister-in-law, who’s happy to help even if she isn’t too impressed by Stella as her brother Nick’s intended. Although Stella loves Nick with all her heart, Miranda’s convinced that Stella is only after the family money, a theory that appears to be increasingly supported by Stella’s ongoing financial hardships. Stella’s hopes that the 4-H competition can take her mind off the trouble on the homefront are thwarted when the Gregg family enters the fray. Known for buying their wins in the calf competition, the Greggs are prepared to do whatever it takes to get the top prize, and Zach knows that he doesn’t stand a chance despite his hard work. Soon after Stella, Nick and their friends try to take their minds off the situation by spending 
the evening listening to new country singer Rikki Raines, they find the young singer’s dead body. Stella wants to get to the bottom of things, partly since she wants to relieve herself of potential blame and partly due to the fact that, for an amateur sleuth, she isn’t half bad.

Unfortunately, the intended wit and quirkiness with which Clemens (Flowers for Her Grave, 2011, etc.) attempts to endow her characters often misses the mark, leaving Stella less interesting than she’s supposed to be.