The Grand Champion

A snowbound cozy mystery where the season's last prize is the truth—and a killer has joined the celebration.

The fair circuit is gathering outside Des Moines for its annual awards banquet. Dorothy Meade has survived a season of difficult questions, and outgoing state judging chair Harriet Soames wants her to help give the circuit an honest future. Dorothy isn't certain she wants the job—or the attention.

A November blizzard closes the roads and traps the banquet guests together. Then Harriet is found dead in the Champions' Room beside a fallen trophy display. The board would like to call it an accident. Dorothy has learned what convenient explanations cost.

Harriet's planned reforms would have changed lives far beyond the judging bench. With her report missing and the storm keeping everyone close, Dorothy searches the season's entry cards and old concession records for the overlooked detail that connects past privilege to present murder.

Del Rourke, Bunny Frantz, and Reserve are with her as she takes on the people and traditions that have shaped her working life. But the hardest thing to recognize may be the familiar face she has never thought to question. Before the celebration can end, Dorothy must decide what fairness demands—and whether she is ready to carry it forward herself.

The Grand Champion closes The County Fair Mysteries with a stormbound whodunit, warm friendships, later-life romance, and the final reckoning of a season spent looking past the ribbons.

For readers who love:

•   Snowbound mysteries with a confined circle of suspects

•   Missing reports, old records, and carefully planted clues

•   Older heroines choosing what comes next

•   Series finales with friendship, romance, and a loyal beagle