The Ghost and the Key

In the rush to subscribe to true-crime podcasts these days, we think it's something new, but what if I told you about The Old Cranberry Ladies Garden Club who has been digging around in old cases for over two hundred years? Today we are looking at this group of nosy, yet terribly smart, old ladies and three mysteries they solve. Our excerpt will be from the first book in the series, The Ghost and the Key, where they go after a murderer from 192 years ago.

THE GHOST AND THE KEY

With a pitchfork through the man's groin and another through his chest, it is clear that someone had murdered Chester H. Cranberry. It's not something that could have happened accidentally. But that was 192 years ago. As Mildred Cranberry, the current family matriarch, puts it, "We have two women, two keys, two pitchforks, and one dead two-timing man." Who in their right mind would want to dig up that cold case and try to solve it? It's not like the murderer could be prosecuted in 2024, right? But what if a key piece of evidence can be dug up (literally)? And what if a descendant of Chester's illegitimate child can get her hands on it? Mildred will need more than the Old Cranberry Ladies Garden Club members to solve this bizarre case. The spiritual support she needs may not be what she expects when the ghost of Elcira Cranberry, the widow murderess herself, arrives to do what? Tell the truth or protect her reputation?

The Ladies Garden Club of Old Cranberry, Connecticut, has a 200-year history that has remained shrouded in secrecy for so long, it has been lost to history, until now. Elcira Cranberry and freedwoman Deborah Townsend knew the men of the town would have no interest in a garden club, so it was the perfect cover for their secret organization. Now, nearly two centuries later, the current members have no idea what those ladies were up to in the early 1800s, right here in Connecticut. But the secret will soon be out.

Links: Amazon | Kindle | Barnes & Noble | BookShop.org | Goodreads | BookBub

 

Music Credits:

Life

https://uppbeat.io/t/christopher-galovan/life

License code: 7HRZUO7SKSKFG1JX

Quiet Versus Silence

https://uppbeat.io/t/daniel-diaz/quiet-versus-silent

License code: 1XXZQET8VSWB0BOP

 

Books to the Ceiling is a part of Teresa Trent's Blog.