As a former lawyer, Liz knows she will be dismissed from serving on a jury, but she still has to report. She gets into a verbal disagreement with an obnoxious prospective juror. As luck would have it, Liz is still at the courthouse when this woman stumbles from the elevator, looks at Liz, and collapses, accusing her of murder. To clear herself, Liz sets out to find out who really did it. It’s an entertaining mystery and a gentle read. I like the way the author works in secondary characters and storylines, to make the novel more interesting. ( )

As far as I remember, I have not read other books in this series. The words "old order" in the title caught my eye and made me wonder if it was a book set in an Amish setting--it is, but most of the characters in it are not Amish. In fact, the lack of explanation of the history of the characters might be my one complaint about this book.

Liz Eckhardt seems to have some connection to the Amish community--I believe somewhere in the book it said her mother was Amish--though they'd also lived outside the Amish community as well if what I remember reading is correct. Liz runs the inn where most of the story takes place. Her inn also has a quilt shop attached that is run by two other ladies. Many of Liz's guests are quilters.

Beans is an interesting dog who goes from being a lay-about to being a bit more of an active part of the story. Another character brings her pet snake to the inn. The child (Brya) was a bit much at first--I don't think she was as interested in quilting as her mother thought she'd be. She did seem to settle down and grow up a bit as the novel progressed.

The characters about whom we get the most history are Nora Wexler and Prudence Spratt, both of whom left the Amish community at the same time. Nora either already had a non-Amish man in love with her or soon found him--and it appears she dropped her "friendship" with Prudence once that happened. Prudence tried returning to the Amish community but found she really didn't fit in either world (Amish or non-Amish) but chose leaving the community again.

I had a feeling Prudence would be a factor in Nora's death, but I didn't guess where they would find Prudence. ( )