Lily Barlow Book One: The Mystery of Jane Dough (Lily Barlow, 1)

Literature & Fiction

Vergot, Carla

United States

Morgan James Fiction

Quirky Lily Barlow idolizes the fictional bounty hunter Stephanie Plum from the Janet Evanovich series and longs for that kind of freewheeling lifestyle―a life where she makes her own rules. The problem is, there are no criminals or noteworthy crimes to speak of in her small and stifling hometown of Marshall, VA. As a fallback, the plucky college student plans to escape Yawnsville, where she was born and raised, by pursuing a degree at the University of Virginia. To her, the fact that she has switched majors multiple times and remains currently undecided is not at all important. However, to her consternation, those college plans are put on hold when she is called home to help resuscitate her family’s business, Poppy’s Bakery, after her father suffers a heart attack. First things first. She doesn’t want anybody jumping to the conclusion that she’s coming home for good; she didn’t get the baking gene, and she reliably burns anything she puts in an oven. Still, you can see how people would assume she would take over for her dad. To squash that rumor before it becomes historic record, she rents a little efficiency garage on the edge of town. Her new landlady, Miss Delphine Walker, is a senior spitfire in floral print. She’s stubborn, independent, and knows her mind. Sure, she and her dog, Velcro, are likable enough, but Lily has a vivid imagination and a knack for turning everyday occurrences into true crime plots. It’s pretty clear to her that this old bat is hiding something. Lily jumps from one crazy conclusion to the next until finally determining that Miss Delphine is a murderer―and the body may or may not be buried on her property. Upon settling into her new, temporary place, Lily throws herself a royal pity-party, complete with confetti. She has a little too much tequila, and on the advice of her good friend Mercedes, tries to research dough as a way to connect with the family bakery in a more zen-like way. In the process, she stumbles across an online clearing house for records of murder victims that the cops have not been able to identify. With a love of the macabre, it doesn’t take long before Lily is fully immersed in the details of these unidentified dead bodies. She revisits one particular case over and over and becomes convinced she knows the person. Suddenly, her single-minded goal of getting the bakery running grows a few more legs. Feeling honor-bound to give a name to the woman in the profile, she launches her own little investigation. When choosing between excitement and personal safety, she always comes down on the side of the first one, taking a lackadaisical approach to the second one. That’s okay, though, because she has Jack Turner for the personal safety piece. Ah, good ol’ Jack Turner. In addition to being a mechanic, firefighter, and poster boy for preparedness, Jack has been Lily’s best friend since kindergarten. She hates that he likes to micromanage every single cotton-pickin’ thing she does. It’s annoying but done out of brotherly love so she has come to accept his involvement in her life. Out of nowhere, Jack takes this opportunity to lob another red rubber ball into this crazy dodgeball tournament with a revelation that throws Lily completely off her game. Jack apparently wants something more. Something more? Like what? Lily wonders. A second helping of mashed potatoes? (br&gt; While offering his support and assistance in the area of the quasi-investigation, Jack begins to pursue Lily romantically. Lily is diametrically opposed to this turn of events and fears any romantic dalliance will sabotage their long friendship. The friendship is not the only thing at stake. If she gets sucked into a relationship, it could ultimately derail her dreams of escaping the small town. One of Jack’s personality traits, aka character flaws, has always been perseverance. Lily knows it won’t be easy to keep him at arm’s length, but she’s dealt with him all her life, so she’s up to the challenge. As she juggles the bakery and boy drama, Lily throws herself into the mystery of the murder victim, coming up with a plan to prove the identity of the woman.

Lily Barlow: The Mystery of Jane Dough

Humor & Satire

Lifestyle Entrepreneurs Pr

Lily Barlow came back to her sleepy hometown of Marshall, Virginia, for one reason and one reason only―to rescue her family’s bakery from financial ruin after her dad’s heart attack. She successfully managed that without even donning an apron, but before heading back down to the University of Virginia, Lily unraveled a case of mistaken identity, uncovered some pretty good evidence that her elderly landlady, Miss Delphine, is up to something, and got blindsided by her best friend, Jack Turner, who suddenly declared he and Lily should start dating. How’s that for a week of being home? The identity of the woman with the purple flower tattoo remains a mystery, however. Pouring over a website that tracks unidentified murder victims, Lily got sucked into the profile of a woman whose decapitated body was found in a Florida swamp. The victim wasn’t Lily’s acquaintance after all, but she is haunted by the fact that this woman remains nameless. Lily and her friend, Storie Sanders, pursue a lead that draws them from the quiet backroads of Virginia to the tropical mangroves of the Keys. Things take several unexpected turns as they work their way deeper into the mystery. Is their investigation leading them dangerously close to the murderer himself? A devotee of Stephanie Plum, Lily is inspired by this chain of events and starts to wonder if she could go from an amateur sleuth to a professional one, or at the very least get a minor in sleuthing. You gotta start somewhere, right? After all, she’s certain Mis Delphine is busy burying bodies out back, and if she just had a little more crime scene training, she could probably blow that case sky high. Not that she necessarily wants to bust a crazy old lady who has been nothing but kind, letting her live rent-free in the efficiency apartment above the garage. Regardless, Miss Delphine is hiding something. Or is it someone? Lily’s dad, George Barlow, is recovering quite nicely from his heart attack, although Lily is stuck in alert mode. She lost her mama at the age of six and is painfully aware that she’s one parent away from orphan status, even if she is a legal adult at this point. Maybe the University of Virginia in Charlottesville is too far away to keep tabs on her dad. It’s only a two-hour drive, but that seems like forever when your dad is being taken by ambulance to the hospital. If she moved back to the stifling little town, would she go completely bonkers? And what in the name of fishing lures and French fries is going on with Jack these days? This whole change in their status is bizarre. They’ve been best friends since kindergarten, never having tested the waters of a physical relationship. That’s probably because the brotherly/sisterly bond was so strong. Jack has clearly lost his mind with this crazy suggestion the two start dating. He’s taking his Principle of Proximity way too far, crossing every line Lily can manufacture with his neck smelling and his eye contact and his powers of seduction. Her gut says this is a risky little game that could cost her the most important person in her life. Her instinct is to tell him it’s a hard no on the dating question even if the romance is simmering down in the Keys. Is the Florida heat playing tricks on her or is Jack winning? As if she didn’t have enough to keep her occupied between Jack, the family crises, school starting back up…and you know…murder victims, a curious question surrounding her dead mama, Connie Barlow, has suddenly surfaced. There’s a missing piece in that puzzle, but where should she look?

Lily Barlow (The Mystery in the Mangroves, 2)

Genre Fiction

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