Review: Leave Tomorrow Behind: A Stella Crown Mystery by Judy Clemens

• Hardcover: 250 pages
• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press (Dec 3 2013)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1464202028
• ISBN-13: 978-1464202025

Book Description

She’s back! Tattooed, hard working, and often crabby dairy farmer and biker Stella Crown is hot—both in temperature and temperament. Her sister-in-law is a nag, her fiancée Nick is ill, and her bank account is in the red. But when a local country star turns up dead at the county fair, where Stella's teenage employee Zach is an exhibitor, things turn from hot to ugly.

Stella wasn’t friends with the victim. In fact, she’d only seen her from a distance. But seeing how Stella was the one to dig her out from her deathbed in the calf barn’s manure pile, the cops are on her like flies on…well…honey.  Why on earth would Stella want to kill a young singer she’d never spoken to? She’d much rather kill the annoying helicopter dad in the fair’s dairy barn. Or the fifty percent fake girl in the Lovely Miss Pennsylvania Pageant. Or her banker.

About the Author

Judy Clemens spends her days in rural Ohio, where she writes, spends time with her family, and eats too much chocolate.  She is the author of the Grim Reaper and Stella Crown mysteries, and is a past president of Sisters in Crime.

My Review

 Good read by new-to-me author Judy Clemens. This book has been available since early December and is published by one of my favorite publishing houses, Poisoned Pen Press.

Stella Crown is an interesting woman - a dairy farmer who rides a Harley and who is engaged to a good man (also a good looking man). In between dealing with her fiance's sister who is obsessed with wedding planning, there is a state fair and the murder of a rising country star who had just performed at the state fair. All of the action revolves around the state fair and the livestock competitions. Like myself, I'm sure a lot of readers will find this part very interesting as it is a very unfamiliar world. 

Good story, good well plotted mystery and interesting characters.  Also glad I'm now on the lookout for Judy Clemens books.  One complaint - I don't like the cover. I don't think it will entice readers.