Dead Letters and Pecan Pie
For twenty-three years, Eugenia Crick has opened the Hollow Creek post office before sunrise, her brass key as familiar in her hand as a prayer. So when Postmaster Hiram Pettigrew is found dead in his office clutching a letter addressed to a woman who died two decades ago, Eugenia knows something is terribly wrong. The letter is meant for Birdie Lou Pemberton's mother, a woman who never received it. Now Birdie Lou has it, and someone in Hollow Creek will do anything to keep the contents buried. Sheriff Dale Tatum is more interested in his re-election than an old letter, and Deputy Carla Jessup's questions keep running into walls of Southern silence. As Eugenia digs deeper, she uncovers a web of debts, betrayals, and a courthouse fire that may not have been an accident at all. With the help of her sharp-tongued mother Pauline and the meddling but well-meaning women of her Friday night pie circle, Eugenia must outwit a killer who knows her every move. But when another body turns up and the letter's secret threatens to tear the town apart, Eugenia realizes the truth may cost more than she's willing to pay, and silence in Hollow Creek has never been free.