Margins
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Dewberry Farm
Series · 9 books · 2015-2022

Books in series

Killer Jam book cover
#1

Killer Jam

2015

When Houston reporter Lucy Resnick cashes in her retirement to buy her grandmother’s farm in Buttercup, Texas, she’s looking forward to a simple life as a homesteader. But Lucy has barely finished putting up her first batch of Killer Dewberry Jam when an oil exploration truck rolls up to the farm and announces plans to replace her broccoli patch with an oil derrick. Two days later, Nettie Kocurek, the woman who ordered the drilling, turns up dead at the Founders’ Day Festival with a bratwurst skewer through her heart and one of Lucy’s jam jars beside her…and the sheriff fingers Lucy as the prime suspect. Horrified, Lucy begins to talk to Nettie’s neighbors, but the more she gets to know the townspeople, the more she realizes she’s not the only one who had a beef with Nettie. Can she clear her name, or will her dream life turn into a nightmare?
Fatal Frost book cover
#2

Fatal Frost

2016

Lucy Resnick’s nerves are as tight as a tea cozy. Her new goats, Hot Lips and Gidget, keep making a break for the town square, her truck is dying, and her boyfriend’s gorgeous ex-wife is in town for the holidays. Worse, someone’s digging holes on her land…and uprooting her peach orchard and dewberry patch in the process. Lucy needs additional holiday stress like she needs a blow to the head—which she receives one night, courtesy of the mystery digger. When the dim-witted sheriff arrests one of Lucy’s best friends, the former reporter puts her own problems on the back burner and starts investigating. What she finds is a patchwork of clues—an injured puppy, a sapphire necklace gone missing, and a string of poison-pen letters—that draws her deep into a web of small-town secrets. Word travels fast in Buttercup. When the killer learns Lucy’s on the trail, Lucy finds she needs more than her reporting skills to save her friend—she needs a Christmas miracle.
Deadly Brew book cover
#3

Deadly Brew

2017

It's Halloween in Buttercup, Texas, and reporter-turned-farmer Lucy Resnick is up to her ears in more than goats and wayward cows. Not only has her well dried up, but it turns out the old house Lucy recently moved to the farm has a reputation for spooks... and they are disturbingly active. Then a Tarot card reading at a local mead winery foretells death... only to have exotic game ranch owner Bug Wharton turn up dead. Cause of death? Murder, by a fatal dose of bee venom. When the dimwitted sheriff fingers local witch and mead winery owner Selena Gutierrez, Lucy gets involved... and soon discovers that all kinds of things are brewing in Buttercup. And some of them are deadly.
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#4

Mistletoe Murder

2017

It's beginning to look a lot like... Murder. It's Christmastime, and farmer Lucy Resnick is living the life she's always dreamed of. When she's not selling her jams, soaps, and mistletoe bundles at the Buttercup Christmas Market, she's enjoying cozy evenings by the fire with her knitting group—or her handsome veterinarian boyfriend Tobias Brandt. But less than a week before Christmas, a pall falls over the festive atmosphere when local man Randy Stone turns up with a knife in his back... and a sprig of mistletoe in his hair. Local sheriff Rooster Kocurek, never the brightest bulb on the string, is convinced it's an open-and-shut case—murder by jealous wife—but Lucy suspects otherwise. She soon discovers that Randy's life was more tangled than last year's Christmas lights... and that unless she wraps up the case fast, there might be more than one funeral this holiday season.
Dyeing Season book cover
#5

Dyeing Season

2019

The eggs aren't the only things dyeing in Buttercup... It's springtime on Dewberry Farm, and homesteader Lucy Resnick is busy putting together her wares for the Easter Market. She's just finished potting the last of her herb starts when a tornado rips through her farm, destroying her crops, scattering her livestock and tearing up the barn. As Lucy searches for two kids lost in the storm, she makes a grisly her neighbor's home health aide, Eva, strangled with a hand-knitted scarf. While investigating the young woman's death, Lucy discovers that blood isn't always thicker than water... and that somebody may be taking advantage of the town's more vulnerable citizens. When a second body turns up, drowned in a vat of dye, the whole town is walking on eggshells. Will Lucy find the killer in time? Or has dyeing season just begun?
Wicked Harvest book cover
#6

Wicked Harvest

2019

Crisp autumn breezes, sizzling bratwurst, warm gingerbread cookies... and just a dash of murder. It's Oktoberfest in Buttercup, Texas, and homesteader Lucy Resnick is taking a break from her chores to enjoy a day of bratwurst, craft beer, and German gingerbread at Sweetwater Brewery. But the day takes a bitter turn when one of the brewery owners turns up dead, crushed by a giant sack of barley. It doesn't take long for Sheriff Rooster (not the sharpest tool in the garden shed) to finger the victim's brother and co-owner, Simon Gustafson. But former investigative reporter Lucy senses that the blighted plants in her pumpkin patch aren't the only things rotten in Buttercup. Will she find the killer in time? Or will she be next in line for canning?
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#6.5

Slay Bells Ring

2020

It's Christmastime on Dewberry Farm, and homesteader Lucy Resnick is busy bundling mistletoe bunches and cedar swags for the Buttercup Christmas Market when a neighbor's houseguest keels over right next to her peach orchard. Was it a stray bullet from a hunter that took him out? Or did a guest at the fancy ranch next door decide to scratch somebody off his or her Christmas list? It's up to Lucy to unwrap the mystery… before the holiday killer strikes again.
Sweet Revenge book cover
#7

Sweet Revenge

2020

Fall into another sweet Dewberry Farm adventure! When Priscilla Jordan, a wealthy descendant of Buttercup's new living history museum's historic owner, turns up dead in one of the museum's cabins, the police finger local meadery owner Serafine Alexandre as the killer. There's bad blood in Priscilla's family—a disgruntled husband, a disinherited cousin, and a ne'er-do-well son—but the local police don't seem to care. Dewberry Farm homesteader Lucy Resnick's desperate to help her friend... but someone's warning her off the case. When an intruder pins a threatening note to the farm's back door with a knife, Lucy knows she's getting close to the the truth... and if she doesn't figure it out fast, she may be next on the chopping block. With a twisty historical mystery, easy, delicious honey-themed recipes and beeswax projects you can make at home, and a cast of fun characters—both animal and human—you'll love this new visit to Buttercup!
Peach Clobber book cover
#8

Peach Clobber

2022

Sweet peaches, family secrets... and a farm-fresh murder. A struggling peach orchard, a tangled love triangle, and a suspicious death have farmer Lucy Resnick's reporter instincts on high alert in the latest Dewberry Farm mystery. Add in old bones, a decades-old disappearance, and loads of delicious peach recipes for a juicy story you won't want to put down!

Author

Karen MacInerney
Karen MacInerney
Author · 37 books

I'm the author of the Agatha-nominated Gray Whale Inn mystery series, Tales of an Urban Werewolf. the Margie Peterson mysteries and the Dewberry Farm mysteries (plus a new fantasy in the works). My reading is like my writing: eclectic! I grew up in the Northeast, but I currently live in Austin with my husband, two kids, and a houserabbit named Bunny. Feel free to visit me online at www.karenmacinerney.com; I love connecting with readers.

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