A Tough Nut to Kill by Elizabeth Lee: Guest Author/Review/Giveaway

When I started writing A Tough Nut to Kill I knew my main character was a good person. I knew Lindy studied at Texas A&M to become a botanist so she could help her family, the Blanchards, and the others in the town of Riverville, Texas, where a lot of pecan ranchers lived.

Pecan trees can have real bad years. The trees get diseased or hit by drought. Some families go under, ranches and homes go to the highest bidder. Lots of broken hearts and broken lives. Lindy’s grown up with that fear in her and wants to help change things in Riverville. Now she’s on the verge of developing a drought resistant and disease proof pecan tree that will change things for the better among the ranchers of Riverville.

Until the day she stumbles over her Uncle Amos’s body on the cement floor of her greenhouse and the quiet town of Riverville is turned on its head, secrets coming out, neighbor telling on neighbor and, because Uncle Amos was the black sheep of the family, everybody eventually settling on the killer as one of the Blanchard’s themselves.

Soon Lindy and her meemaw, Miss Amelia, 77, the matriarch of the family, the woman who runs The Nut House in town, a store filled with every imaginable pecan goodie from Miss Amelia’s prize winning pecan pie to her Outhouse Moon Cookies, are after a killer or killers who strike out at anything to protect their secrets.

Granddaughter and grandmother are drawn into worlds they’d never been part of before. Soon Miss Amelia is sedately line dancing with the best of’em at the Barking Coyote Saloon in Riverville; seeking help from two gun toting octogenarian sisters; tracking down a private detective with information in Columbus, Texas; then on to Houston to meet a mysterious woman named Virginia.

The one thing about southern women—young and old—is they always get their man. Even if it’s with a big bat of the eyelashes in a saloon or an insincere “Why, bless yer heart . . .” while setting a trap to catch a ruthless killer.

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A Tough Nut to Kill can be purchased here

About A Tough Nut to Kill: Lindy Blanchard has devoted five years of her life to saving the pecan trees on her family’s farm—but someone is going to deadly lengths to see that she fails…

Riverville, Texas, is pecan country, and the Blanchard family farm is famous for its acres of tall pecan trees and the delicious pies and cookies sold at the Nut House, the aptly named family store. Miss Amelia, Lindy’s feisty grandmother, makes the best pecan pies for several counties and the farm is attracting visitors from far and wide to sample the wares.

Until the day Lindy walks into the greenhouse to find her uncle Amos murdered and her new stock of trees destroyed, with the best of the bunch stolen. Who is out to ruin the Blanchard family? And who wanted Uncle Amos dead? With the sheriff stumped, it’s up to Lindy and Miss Amelia to save the ranch and tree a killer.

Mochas, Mysteries and Meows Review: As a pecan pie fanatic, I've been looking forward to this new series for a long time. A Tough Nut to Kill is set in the heart of pecan country at a family store named the Nut House, and stepping foot inside is pure nirvana for pecan lovers.

Lindy is a plant biologist and a bioengineer who has returned home to help her Grandmother Miss Amelia run the Nut House and attempt to develop drought resistant, disease proof pecan trees. Trouble comes to town in the form of her Uncle Amos, the black sheep of the family. Then one morning Lindy arrives at her office to find it on fire and ransacked, the seedlings in her greenhouse either destroyed or missing, and Uncle Amos dead with a plant stake stuck in him. Things only manage to get worse when her brother Justin is arrested for the murder.

My favorite characters in this book are the Chauncey twins. They are over 80 years old, ride their horses while packing rifles, appear to be hoarders, and bicker all the time. These ladies *so* need to be the stars of their very own mystery series!

This book is the beginning of an exciting new mystery series filled with Southern charm. Definitely the perfect escapist read while we're all stuck waiting out the latest snowstorm!

GIVEAWAY: What's your favorite kind of pie? Tell us by noon EST on February 12, and you will be entered to win a copy of A Tough Nut to Kill. U.S. entries only.

* I received a copy of this book from the publisher with the request for a review.