Reserve Champion

A rural cozy mystery where forty years of winning cannot keep an old grievance from turning deadly.

The State Qualifier has returned to Harmon Junction, Illinois, and Vern Aldous expects his Hampshire sheep to add another ribbon to a legendary record. Dorothy Meade intends to judge the animals in front of her. Vern's estranged brother wants her to judge something much older.

Lyle Aldous claims a doctored scorecard cost him his rightful title forty years ago. His public accusation rattles the barn—and puts Dorothy's own fairness on trial. Then Vern is found murdered in the tack room beneath a Reserve Champion banner.

An old family feud makes a tempting explanation. Dorothy wants evidence. With the fair board resisting a look into its archives, she begins reconstructing the disputed championship from class placings, faded paperwork, and the rules that decide who gets a second chance in the ring.

Del Rourke stands beside her as the questions grow uncomfortable, Bunny Frantz supplies the gossip, and Reserve supplies his usual appetite for trouble. But every person who remembers that long-ago contest has something invested in its official version. Dorothy must discover what really happened before she can distinguish an old injustice from a new murder.

Reserve Champion is Book 4 of The County Fair Mysteries, pairing a sharp-eyed older heroine with showring rivalries, dry wit, and a whodunit about the lasting price of a stolen ribbon.

For readers who love:

•   Sheep shows and competitive rural communities

•   Decades-old family feuds and disputed victories

•   Clever older sleuths who follow the evidence

•   Archival clues, beagle antics, and gentle romance