Berried In The Past is the fifth book in the Cranberry Cove Mystery series.

Cranberry Cove is experiencing bitter cold and heavy snowfall, but Monica and Greg are having a romantic evening curled up in front of their fireplace when there is knocking at their front door. When they answer the door, there is a lady who identifies herself as Dana and says that someone is trying to kill her. She relates that she has run her car off the road while trying to find her sister’s home. They all agree to wait until the morning after the roads have been plowed to help Dana find her sister’s home. The next morning Monica and Dana set out to find Dana’s sister. Soon Dana remembers enough that they can find the house. They receive no response when they knock on the door. Dana tries the door and finds it unlocked and they enter calling her sister’s name. Getting no response, they start searching the house and soon find her dead in her bed. The coroner is called and is in too much of a hurry to start his vacation and states she died of natural causes.

Dana doesn’t believe that the coroner’s decision is correct and asks Monica if she will help to find out how her sister really died and Monica quickly agrees to help. Monica soon learns that some of the sister’s pills are missing and that may have caused her to have a heart attack. She also learns that Dana’s brother has been trying to get his sister to see the house that the three of them own. A real estate developer is also in town and wants the property to build housing. It also appears that a couple of her friends might have wanted to see the sister die.

A sub-plot hits close to home for Monica. Monica’s brother, Jeff, wants to sell the cranberry farm so he will have money to repair the injuries from a war injury to his arm. She’s worried that she and Greg will have to find a new place to live and she will lose her bakery.

The story is well-plotted and written. The residents of Cranberry Cove are well-developed and quite enjoyable. There are plenty of twists and turns that kept me guessing till the end.

There are also delicious-sounding recipes included in the book.

I’m looking forward to the next book in this delightful series. ( )

family-dynamics, cozy-mystery, amateur-sleuth, Michigan, murder-investigation, developers, greed****

A frightened woman on Monica's doorstep led to finding a dead woman in her own home who's death was summarily dismissed as natural causes. Not.
The short tempered greedy brother of the distraught amnesiac is also brother to the dead sister and in deep conversation with a developer working on farm owners. It turns out that he has even made inroads in discussion with Monica's own brother who is considering selling their family farm in order to have restorative surgery.
The motives pile up even faster than the clues. Good sleuthing!
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Beyond the Page Publishing via NetGalley. ( )