Found Key (Ginny Dove Cozy Mystery Series, #1)

Ginny Dove, a military widow, runs the Paisley Apron Diner in the small town of Sweet Springs, Virginia, located amid the picturesque Blue Ridge Mountains. She's drawn into a homicide investigation when the young schoolteacher Ellie Blackburn is found slain on Pilgrims' Knob, which Ginny owns. Along with her patient mother Marge and her irrepressible Aunt Cricket, Ginny sets out to learn what happened to Ellie. Acting Sheriff Roosevelt Baker soon comes to depend on Ginny's sleuthing smarts and practical ideas to ferret out the right clues leading them to identify three murder suspects. When not operating the town diner and playing amateur sleuth, Ginny raises her rambunctious seven-year-old son Boone and begins her promising romance with Roosevelt. While searching to find the "key" to solve Ellie's murder mystery and return harmony to Sweet Springs, Ginny also discovers a few personal things about herself. Mystery fans of Nevada Barr as well as Jim and Joyce Laverne will enjoy the humor, setting, and compassion found in the Ginny Dove Cozy Mystery Series.