Once Upon a Time to Die For

By Rosemary Miner

Find & buy on

It is 1873 in the small Adirondack village of Wevertown. Gracie Wickham has assumed her deceased father’s role as town physician. A well-liked and respected spinster, Gracie is so integral to the community that when one of the co-owners of the local tannery is discovered upside-down in a vat of chemicals late one evening, the manager fetches her before raising the alarm. After the coroner determines the death was no accident, he asks Gracie to try to solve the murder before he must report it to the constable, an unjust man who will simply arrest the most convenient suspect.

Clues mount as Gracie interviews and cares for her fellow townspeople with compassion and respect. There is no true sense of danger, not even after a second body is discovered. The coroner has no qualms about sending a lone woman sniffing after a murderer. The suspense comes from the fear that the wrong community member might be accused of the crime. The story unfolds logically so the reader can solve the case along with Gracie. This is a short, rather sweet book that should appeal to those looking for a mystery without blood and gore.