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Small-town life in Hazel Rock becomes a Texas-size crime scene when murder takes a page from Charli Rae Warren’s book club’s latest mystery…
Charli takes great pride in running one of the few independent, family-owned bookstores in small-town Texas. She vets everything carefully, with an eye to the eclectic tastes of the locals. That includes the Book Barn’s weekly book club selection. This time out it’s a mystery whose characters bear a striking resemblance to local citizens, including Charli’s friend Sugar…who’s the prime suspect when her real-life nemesis is found dead in the hotel’s water tank.
With help from her pet armadillo Princess, Charli campaigns to clear Sugar’s sweet name—literally—when the up-for-election mayor becomes a killer’s next target. Murder and politics make scandalous bedfellows as Charli discovers that fiction may be fatal, but reality could be just as deadly…
The Book Barn Mystery Series by Kym Roberts
Fatal Fiction
A Reference to Murder
Perilous Poetry
Lethal Literature
Killer Classics
Table of Contents
Cover Copy
The Book Barn Mystery Series by Kym Roberts
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Teaser Chapter
About the Author
KILLER CLASSICS
A Book Barn Mystery
Kym Roberts
LYRICAL UNDERGROUND
Kensington Publishing Corp.
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Copyright © 2018 by Kym Roberts
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First Electronic Edition: December 2018
eISBN-13: 978-1-5161-0659-2
eISBN-10: 1-5161-0659-8
First Print Edition: December 2018
ISBN-13: 978-1-5161-0661-5
ISBN-10: 1-5161-0661-X
Printed in the United States of America
Dedication
For the characters who inspire the mystery
Acknowledgments
Thank you to the members of the Kensington team who have made this series possible. I am ever so grateful for their hard work and patience. Thank you to my editor Martin Biro, who is the brain behind several of my titles, including Killer Classics and the man who made the series possible. I would be remiss to forget Penny’s line edits—whew! She worked hard! Thank you to my agent, Kim Lionetti, who has been with me from the beginning—pushing me and my work to make it the best it can be. Keep pushing, Kim! But most of all, thank you dear readers. Y’all have made my Book Barn Mysteries a fun and joyous adventure. Without you, there would be no Princess or Team Mateo.
Chapter 1
“Sugar did it.”
Sugar’s mouth dropped open, and her eyes nearly popped out of her head at Reba Sue’s accusation.
“Sugar didn’t kill anyone,” Leila argued. “The woman traps scorpions at the bar and releases them outside.” Leila shuddered, her round body jiggling from head to toe. “Stupid critters belong under a boot heel.”
Reba Sue, however wasn’t backing down. “We’re not talking about Sugar killing a pest that could sting her,” she insisted. “We’re talking about a gold-diggin’ woman dying after she made a move on Sugar’s man. I’m telling you, any woman would kill Maddie after what that good for nothin’ tramp did. And Sugar is no different.”
My best friend Scarlet joined the argument. “As usual, you’re barking up the wrong hemline, Reba Sue. Liza Twine killed her.” Scarlet ticked off the points of her argument on two well-manicured, red nails. “She had motive and opportunity.”
Liza Twaine scoffed. Her purple nails drummed on the surface of the hand-milled, ten-foot-long table the women of the Mystery Moms Book Club were gathered around. It was like a personal nail war going on between the two of them. “What could I possibly have against Maddie?”
The rest of the book club members in the loft of my family bookstore, the Book Barn Princess, began arguing back and forth. More names were thrown into the hat as potential suspects to the murder.
Rolling my eyes, I put my index finger and thumb together, raised them to my lips, and let loose a whistle loud enough to bring the rafters down. The argument stopped cold turkey. All twelve women turned as one to look at me.
“May I remind y’all that you’re talking about characters in a book—not our very own Sugar who is sitting right here.”
Sugar’s lips pursed, and her chin bobbed toward her chest in a silent thank you for me giving her redemption.
“And…” I raised my hand to Maddie sitting on the opposite side of the table.