STICKS AND STONES AND A BAG OF BONES

When a beat-up suitcase full of bones washes up by the pier, the residents of the quaint resort town of Mermaid Bay are whipped into a hurricane-sized frenzy over the gruesome find in the middle of their Christmas in July festivities. The holly-jolly mood retreats like the tide, with everyone wondering who was in the suitcase.

Christmas shoppe owner, Jade Hicks, wades into the fracas when voodoo dolls and mysterious notes and posters about impending doom start popping up all over town, threatening to destroy the economy of a community that lives and dies by tourist dollars. Then tensions crest when the prickly bookstore owner is found strangled to death with a string of holiday lights.

Jade and her French bulldog Chloe, have to solve the crime before anyone else gets hurt, and her business and the festival are forever tainted.

Sticks and Stones and a Bag of Bones is the first in the Mermaid Bay Christmas Shoppe Mysteries cozy series.

. . .

“On a cold and dreary January weekend I took a virtual vacation to sunny, summer-y Mermaid Bay, thanks to the wonderful writing of Heather Weidner. Sticks and Stones and a Bag of Bones celebrates Christmas in July in a fictional beach town, which not only brought a favorite holiday into play, but was accompanied by peaceful and relaxing strolls on the beach. Oh, and did I mention murder? Yes, the main character Jade Hicks is in a perfect position to help solve the untimely death of a local store owner, along with the unfunny pranks that plague this small town. From the get-go when a suitcase of bones washes up on the beach, until the exciting ending when the mysteries (plural) are solved, well, what’s not love about this well written, character-drive, fast-paced cozy mystery? Only downfall is that it will be a YEAR before I can make another visit to Mermaid Bay!”

~ Jayne Ormerod, Author of Goin’ Coastal