Death Rides a Pony

by Carol Miller

Overview

The second entry in the fun-filled The Fortune Telling Mysteries series sees the Bailey sisters offering light-hearted fortune telling for charity that soon turns deadly.

Sisters Hope and Summer Bailey run Bailey's Boutique, a mystic shop in Asheville, North Carolina. The annual charity festival is approaching, and the sisters are roped in to offering fortune telling to raise money.

Before proceedings can begin, Summer receives a bad Tarot card reading. She fears she'll be left destitute from her upcoming divorce battle as the realtor charged with selling her and her soon-to-be ex-husband's home, Davis Scott, keeps making unwelcome appearances.

Davis's most troublesome appearance comes when he's found dead at the festival. Davis had a bad reputation amongst the Asheville community, but who would go to the lengths of killing him . . . and during a charity event, no less! The Tarot cards predicted a death, but do they hold clues to who the murderer is?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780727850959
Publisher:	Severn House
Publication date:	12/06/2022
Series:	The Fortune Telling Mysteries , #2
Edition description:	Main
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.79(w) x 8.74(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Carol Miller is the author of three Moonshine Mystery novels, including Murder and Moonshine, which was named an Amazon Best Book of the Month and a Library Journal Starred Debut of the Month upon release. The Fool Dies Last was Carol's first novel with Severn House and the first entry in The Fortune Telling Mysteries series. Carol is an attorney and lives in Virginia.

www.carolmillerauthor.com

Editorial Reviews

10/31/2022

At the start of Miller’s enjoyable sequel to The Fool Dies Last, sisters Hope and Summer Bailey, the owners of Bailey’s Boutique, a mystic shop in Asheville, N.C., reluctantly agree, at their grandmother’s urging, to support an upcoming charity festival by setting up a booth for crystal ball readings. These readings, their grandmother reassures them, would be purely for entertainment purposes, not “genuine or serious as they are here at the boutique.” Meanwhile, Summer is dismayed by an ominous tarot card reading, given her problems with her controlling soon-to-be ex-husband, “Shifty Gary” Fletcher, who refuses to leave their marital home. Summer just needs boorish realtor Davis Scott to sell the house so she can put the sordid relationship behind her. When Davis turns up strangled at the festival, Summer’s hopes of a quick real estate resolution are dashed. The stakes rise after the sisters are accused of the murder; Hope and Summer prove perceptive amateur sleuths as they set out to prove their innocence. Well-rounded characters and sparkling dialogue keep the plot moving. Fans of paranormal cozies will have fun. Agent: Agent: Kari Stuart, ICM Partners. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

The third in the Moonshine Mystery series [involves] a lively closed-house murder

Booklist on An Old Fashioned Murder

Ghosts in the attic, smokescreens, wacky characters, and a vengeful killer add up to good fun for cozy fans

Booklist on The Fool Dies Last

An entertaining plot, colorful characters, light romance, and a satisfying ending make this a pleasant and engaging read

Booklist

2022-10-12
The connection a pair of mystical North Carolina sisters has with a shady realtor threatens to make the women suspects when he's offed during a charity festival.

Summer and Hope Bailey, the owners of Bailey’s Boutique, have talents that range from knowing about mystical herbs to reading tarot and making modest predictions about the future. The specialty shop is the perfect place to sell their New Age wares and give readings to fellow Asheville residents like patron Rosemarie Potter and her devoted pug, Percy. But making predictions outside the shop isn’t standard practice for either of the sisters, and they’re miffed when Gram signs them up to do palmistry at the upcoming charity festival. They’d refuse if Gram’s main motivation didn’t seem to be getting a little closer to Morris, her fellow festival organizer. After all, Summer and Hope would never stand in the way of potential romance. Besides, Summer wants someone to be lucky in love after her split from her cheating husband, whom both sisters have dubbed Shifty Gary. It’s hard to believe Shifty Gary could do worse than hold up their divorce and try to keep the house to himself, but now he’s hired Davis Scott, an equally untrustworthy realtor, to sell his and Summer's place, and Summer fears she’s going to lose big time. Her haunches are raised not only by her history with her ex, but by a quick tarot reading Hope gives her that shows first the Five of Coins and then Death. The reading turns all too literal when Scott’s killed during the fundraising festival, making the sisters fear that their link to the realtor will point the finger at them.

A gently paranormal setting features a story readers won’t need a crystal ball to figure out.

Kirkus Reviews