Peaches and Schemes

Peaches and Schemes is the third book in the Georgia Bed and Breakfast Mysteries by Anna Gerard. This is a cozy mystery series featuring amateur sleuth Nina Fleet. The story takes place in Cymbeline, Georgia and opens with Nina taking a booth at the Veils and Vanities Bridal Expo in order to tap into the destination wedding market. This twice-yearly event is sponsored by the town's two wedding pros: Virgie Hamilton, the sixtysomething owner of Virgie's Formals, and Roxana Quarry, a Generation X event planner and Nina's new friend. Of course, everything goes wrong during the expo's fashion show when Roxana comes tumbling out of an oversized wedding cake apparently strangled to death by a scarf. Virgie is arrested for the crime after Nina gives a statement to the police about having overheard the woman accusing her partner of embezzlement. The situation becomes more tense when Nina's nemesis and tenant Harry Westcott tells Nina that her ex-husband is engaged to be married again. Believing that Virgie's only offense is her bad temper, Nina decides to begin an investigation into Roxana's murder. 

Peaches and Schemes is your traditional southern cozy and it provided a great escape for me on a lazy Saturday afternoon. While it is the third novel in the series, it is a standalone novel for those who are new to the series, such as myself. Some southern stories can be saccharine sweet but this one had so many twists and turns to taper the sweetness down a little bit. The plot was advanced on just about every page so there was some suspense too. The author wrote a little humor into her dialogue too which added to my enjoyment of the book.  The one thing that I didn't like was Nina telling others to pronounce her name as Nine-ah. I thought this was annoying and not something a southern belle should or would do. Other than that, Peaches and Schemes is the perfect cozy mystery. 

5 out of 5 stars.