Meg is surprised to learn that her mother has made a spur of the moment visit to Massachusetts to visit an old friend from graduate school. Meg is suspicious of her mother’s reasons, especially since Elizabeth doesn’t offer any reasons or excuses as to why she came to visit Daniel while her husband Phillip is on a boating trip with his friends.

Meg is certain her mother is not telling the entire truth, but she has an entire orchard of apples that need attending to; she wants to be as hands on as possible during the first harvest. Meg slings on her apple bag and picks along with her orchard manager, the outspoken, stubborn Bree, and her seasonal workers.

When Meg learns from next door neighbor and new man in her life, Seth, that Daniel’s autopsy shows he was murdered, she becomes concerned her mother may be Marcus’s number one suspect. Though she knows Elizabeth wouldn’t kill anyone, her timing is a bit coincidental. Feeling guilty that she has been neglecting her mother on this visit, Meg begins spending time with her, though her motives are not entirely pure, as she wants to learn the real reason Elizabeth came to see Daniel.

Before they can get too far in their conversations Bree breaks her wrist, forcing Meg to take a much more active role in the harvest. Elizabeth has found some avenues she can pursue on her own and begins to do some amateur sleuthing. Oddly enough, all the clues point to one name: Emily Dickinson. But how can a nineteenth century reclusive poet have anything to do with a twenty-first century death?

A Killer Crop is another terrific entry into this series, and readers will appreciate the literary twist this one offers; Meg lives very close to Emily Dickinson’s home in Amherst and Daniel was a Dickinson scholar.

Sheila Connolly neatly weaves tidbits about Dickinson and her life into the plot, adding much to the New England atmosphere. The relationship between Meg and her mother adds more depth to the characters, and the author shows new interactions between Meg and Seth and Meg and Bree as Meg and her mother forge a new chapter in their relationship, with Meg as a farmer, and with her mother becoming more accepting of the life Meg has decided to try.

The clues to Daniel’s murderer and motive are very subtle and when the ending is finally revealed, though the who and why may be known, there are some details that are surprising. A Granford Harvest Festival is a backdrop event to all the fall goings on in Meg’s life, adding to a pleasant fall afternoon read.

--Jennifer Monahan Winberry