Plain Deception

by Tara Randel

Genres: Amish & Mennonite; Cozy Mystery

Synopsis

Liz Eckardt is more grateful than ever that the discovery of her mother's secret Amish history brought her to the idyllic town of Pleasant Creek, Indiana. Her work at the Olde Mansion Inn gives her a deep sense of fulfillment. She has been welcomed and embraced by her newfound family, and she's constantly kept in stitches thanks to her new friends in the local quilting group, The Material Girls. The hustle and bustle of the inn's opening has finally settled down, and Liz is able to enjoy the so-called "simple life" at last.That is until Beans, her notoriously lazy bulldog, pulls her into a new mystery when he uncovers a freshly buried stash on the inn's property -- an old love letter, a Civil War era photograph ... and human bones!Liz is determined to get to the bottom of the macabre find, but exactly how deep will she have to dig to learn the truth?She enlists the help of a local historian but quickly learns that history's mysteries aren't so easily solved. It seems that Emma, the young woman in the old photograph, had a hidden life of her own -- secrets that someone, all these years later, clearly wants to keep buried. Whatever happened to young Emma? And who is trying to keep Liz from digging up the past?With the helping hands of the Material Girls and Pleasant Creek's handsome mayor Jackson Cross, Liz slowly unearths the clues that will lead her to the heart of the matter, and to a local family's secret that has been buried deep for over a century.