Murder Of An Amish Bridegroom

The quiet Amish lifestyle isn't all that it seems in this debut cozy mystery series, for fans of Amanda Flower and Wanda E. Brunstetter. Petunia Yoder is Blueberry, Pennsylvania’s youngest old maid, at twenty-two years of age, and completely unmarriageable. But she’s determined to celebrate her friends’ weddings with joy and a full heart. Unfortunately, Petunia’s best friend, Eden Beiler, is playing a dangerous game with a man who is ruining her reputation. Ike Smoker is the community’s iceman—the one who cuts, stores, and sells the ice—and when Petunia discovers him dead with an ice pick in his chest, Eden is found on the scene with blood on her hands. Homicide detective Asher Nate is new to the area, and he has a challenge on his hands. The Amish community sticks close together, and he doesn’t understand the subtleties and nuances of the clues he uncovers. He needs an Amish interpreter, and he asks Petunia if she’ll help. In a bid to keep her best friend out of prison, she agrees. The community is filled with people who had good reason to hate Ike Smoker, especially as Petunia and Asher begin to uncover his secrets. Was someone trying to protect their family's reputation? Or to exact revenge for a sin buried deep in the past? There’s a litany of damning clues that litters the ground—and if Petunia and Asher can’t come up with the truth, they could end up as the next ones on the killer’s list.

Young widow Amelia Stauffer loves her serene life caring for her three daughters along with widower Ryan Miller’s two little girls, weaving baskets, and baking treats to sell at her friend’s store. Her peace is shattered, though, when various possessions disappear and an unknown person prowls her property at night. Ryan Miller thinks of Amelia as much more than his children’s babysitter, but he and Amelia belong to different groups of Mennonites making a relationship impossible. Will they find a way to bridge that gap while working together to identify and stop the intruder?

Two Amish stories of faith and love A Groom for Ruby - Emma Miller Arriving in Seven Poplars to find a husband, Ruby Plank stumbles into the arms of an eligible bachelor! To her amazement, Joseph Brenneman doesn’t care if Ruby is clumsy or outspoken. The shy mason thinks she’s wonderful. If only others felt the same! Joseph’s mother insists Ruby isn’t good enough. When Ruby’s family secret is revealed, it could divide the couple forever...unless pride gives way to love and trust. The Amish Witness by Diane Burke After witnessing her best friend’s murder, Elizabeth Lapp flees to the Amish community she left years ago. But the killer follows Elizabeth, trapping her in a barn, until Thomas King saves her. The handsome Amish farmer she left behind vows to keep her safe. Suddenly, the man who’s not yet ready to forgive her is all that’s standing between her and a cold-blooded killer.

At just 30 years old, with dark-blonde hair and freckles, Barbara Weaver was as pretty as the women depicted on the covers of her favorite "bonnet" stories - romance novels set in Amish America. Barbara had everything she'd ever wanted: five beautiful children, a home, her faith, and a husband named Eli. But while Barbara was happy to live as the Amish have for centuries - without modern conveniences, Eli was tempted by technology: cell phones, the Internet, and sexting. Online he called himself "Amish Stud" and found no shortage of "English" women looking for love and sex. Twice he left Barbara and their children, was shunned, begged for forgiveness, and had been welcomed back to the church. Barb Raber was raised Amish, but is now a Conservative Mennonite. She drove Eli to appointments in her car, and she gave him what he wanted when he wanted: a cell phone, a laptop, rides to his favorite fishing and hunting places, and, most importantly, sex. When Eli starts asking people to kill his wife for him, Barb offers to help. One night, just after Eli had hitched a ride with a group of men to go fishing in the hours before dawn, Barb Raber entered the Weaver house and shot Barbara Weaver in the chest at close range. It was only the third murder in hundreds of years of Amish life in America, and it fell to Edna Boyle, a young assistant prosecutor to seek justice for Barbara Weaver.

The first title in a brand-new mystery series featuring an Amish community in the fictional town of Heavenly, Pennsylvania, "Hearse and Buggy" offers an inside glimpse into the Amish lifestyle. OThe best cozy mystery debut I've read this year.O--Harlan Coben. Original.

JOHN KELLY was gravely injured by a road-side bomb in Iraq during his last tour. His daughter wants to carry on his legacy and become a soldier, too. As Jamie Kelly wrestles with leaving her father and stepmother to pursue her dream, she learns a friend she hasn't associated with in years is in serious trouble. In her efforts to help her friend, Jamie uncovers long-buried secrets that threaten to shred the very fabric of her existence. She may be young, but she is driven to do the right thing. Doing the right thing sometimes has unintended results. Jamie dreams of becoming an Army Ranger and following in her father's footsteps. She is confident and a skilled martial artist whose favorite weapons are knives. After training with her friend and mentor, Mario Parris, she relies on her skills to investigate a crime that happened before she was born but has just now come full circle.Life may not have been perfect before, but how will Jamie Kelly deal with the life-altering secrets in Trading Lives?

This fascinating book is the first volume in a projected cultural history of the United States, from the earliest English settlements to our own time. It is a history of American folkways as they have changed through time, and it argues a thesis about the importance for the United States of having been British in its cultural origins. While most people in the United States today have no British ancestors, they have assimilated regional cultures which were created by British colonists, even while preserving ethnic identities at the same time. In this sense, nearly all Americans are "Albion's Seed," no matter what their ethnicity may be. The concluding section of this remarkable book explores the ways that regional cultures have continued to dominate national politics from 1789 to 1988, and still help to shape attitudes toward education, government, gender, and violence, on which differences between American regions are greater than between European nations.

It's the dead of winter and struggling actress and wedding-cake decorator Piper Donovan is thrilled to be in warm and romantic Sarasota, Florida, enjoying the powdery white beaches, soothing seas, and golden sunsets over the Gulf of Mexico. She and her family are there to celebrate her beloved cousin's wedding. Not only is Piper creating the sugar-sand-dollar-festooned wedding cake, she's also the maid of honor. But a cloud seems to be hovering over the whole affair. Shortly after a bridesmaid mysteriously disappears, a kindly neighbor's car is run off the road and a prospective witness, an innocent Amish teenager, is threatened to keep silent. Then a body is found on the beach where the wedding will take place. With the nuptials threatened, it falls to Piper to unmask a killer. Could it be the wedding planner with something to hide? A doctor and his wife who collect unusual Japanese figurines? The best man, an ex–drug dealer with lecherous eyes and roving hands? What about her cousin's future stepfather—or even the bridegroom himself? As Piper gets close to figuring out who's been covering his guilty footprints in the sand, the cunning killer has already set his sights on Piper as his next victim!