Hiking Sticks, Hawks, and Homicide (Riley Creek Cozy Mystery Series, #1) / Riley Creek Cozy Mystery Series (ePub)

Martha Sloane had no intention of staying in the hard-to-reach village of Riley Creek, Tennessee-until she finds she is the new owner of the struggling Birds 'n' Beans shop. Now, in the first of a brand-new series, she learns that running a business can be murder….

When Martha Sloane arrives in Riley Creek following the death of her beloved Aunt Lorna, she naively expects a week to be enough to sort everything out, say goodbye to the town that holds so many happy memories and return to her demanding job in Boston. What she doesn't expect is to find the dead body of local ne'er-do-well Curtis Sentrich lying under the leaves in her aunt's backyard.

Buoyed by Riley Creek's colorfully eccentric inhabitants, Martha learns about her aunt's Birds 'n' Beans coffee and birding shop and reconnects with the outdoor life she's always loved. But when the local police seem to suspect Aunt Lorna of having had some underhanded involvement with Sentrich, Martha revises her plans and sets out on an investigation of her own, determined to clear her aunt's name. Instead, she finds herself sinking deeper and deeper into a tangled web of debt, deceit, and betrayal.

When the sinister Cenzo Imbroglio arrives in Martha's life, threatening the safety of all she holds dear, she thinks things can't get any worse. But a discovery lies in wait that will turn her investigation upside down. Even with the help of the Riley Creek gang, she'll have to keep her balance to expose a killer who means business.