App developer Mabel Skinner is about to discover something rotten on her late aunt's garlic farm-and it's not the compost heap . . .
Mabel doesn't know a stinkin' thing about garlic farming. She knows how to develop an app and how to code. But when her aunt, Peggy Skinner, dies suddenly, Mabel inherits her Stinkin' Stuff Farm in western Massachusetts. She arrives during peak harvest time-with three days to bring in the entire crop before rain can destroy it.
But Mabel has an even bigger problem: she suspects her aunt's 'accidental death' was murder. As she digs for both garlic and clues, Mabel must contend with a mysterious crop thief, a rival garlic grower her aunt was suing, and a farmer who was after Aunt Peggy's green-thumb secret. It's up to Mabel to crack the code on a killer, before she joins the garlic bulbs six cloves under . . .
Inheriting her late aunt's Massachusetts farm is no gift for app developer Mabel Skinner, who is about to learn that even the best-grown garlic can't ward off murderous intent . . .
Mabel's hope of finding an enthusiastic farmer to buy Stinkin' Stuff Farm is dying a little bit every day. So far, all she's found are double-dealing developers. But after a heated dispute over grass clippings with an obsessive local rhubarb breeder, she discovers something even more distressing-the breeder in question undisputedly dead in his greenhouse . . .
Uncomfortably aware that she might be a prime suspect, Mabel stops digging in the dirt long enough to dig up more information about the dead man, and anyone else he might have argued with. The list is longer than she imagined, and includes a persnickety neighbor and a rival rhubarb breeder. With all the ingredients for a homegrown mystery, Mabel must unearth a killer-before the next plot to be dug is her grave . . .
Mabel Skinner still hasn't acquired a taste for growing garlic, but the app developer-turned farmer does have a nose for rooting out killers . . .
Dreaming she'll someday return to her less pungent life of computer coding, Mabel continues to honor her deceased aunt's legacy by running Skinner Farm. To make ends meet between harvests, she's renting out the property's mercifully downwind lavender field for summer weddings.
Mabel's first clients are a retirement age couple celebrating their second chance at love in their later years. Hosting a rehearsal dinner with fresh foods seemed like a good idea to promote the farm-until the dead body of one of the wedding guests is discovered. The suddenly departed was the soon-to-be-ex-business partner of the groom, supposedly poisoned by goat cheese hors d'oeuvres provided by Mabel's neighbor.
Despite the tragedy and the scandal, the groom insists on keeping his wedding date. But with the adult children from the couple's previous marriages scheming to stop the new union, Mabel's farm is reeking with suspects. And if she doesn't uncover the murderer, her goat farming neighbor will get sent to the pen for life . . .
