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TILL THE COWS COME HOME
by Judy Clemens
Poisoned Pen Press, April 2004
265 pages
$24.95
ISBN: 1590580826


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Poisoned Pen Press introduces a new heroine in Harley-riding, independent dairy farmer, 29-year-old Stella Crown, who took over her family's smallholding after her father died.She is helped by old family retainer Howie Archer who has worked for the family since before Stella was born, and also 14-year-old neighbor Zach Granger, one of a large clan who helped raise Stella after her mother died.

Ma Granger is throwing a birthday dinner for Stella, so after the explosive opening of the book, in which Stella, Dr Carla Beaumont the local vet, and Zach finish up the C-section of a cow named Wendy, and Hubert Purcell, the local land developer tries yet again to get her to sell her farm to him, Stella cleans up and goes over to Ma Granger's (after having given the bull calf as a gift to Zach)

The news is not all good. Some of the local youngsters are coming down with the flu. One has just died after having been ill for only three days. All parents in the area are terrified, especially when the diagnosis is of a rare disease caused by a fungus usually found on vegetables.

At evening milking, one of her cows is missing. Stella finds her lying dead in a pasture. She keeps Zach at the farm overnight, but the next morning, he has a high fever and the flu-like symptoms exhibited by other children in the area. Someone is after Stella and is involving the local children. Stella has no idea what is going on, even after more sabotage rears itself.

I don't know if this will be a series, but I do hope that PPP has more books by Judy Clemens in the works. She is a fresh new voice, writing a strictly American book that adheres to the classical lines of the British village mystery.

Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, May 2004

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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