Meadowlark — Sheila Simonson

Having recently moved with her professor husband from California up to the Shoalwater Peninsula in Washington state, Lark Dodge has been busy renovating their new home and setting up her bookstore, Larkspur Books. The former basketball player and occasional amateur sleuth isn't too busy, though, to avoid being recruited to help out with a midwinter writers conference. Lark has been pressed into service by Bianca Fiedler, a child of Hollywood stars turned organic farmer. Bianca has used her considerable inheritance to fund an experimental farm and teaching facility on the peninsula, and now she needs assistance hosting a weeklong workshop for journalists. It would seem prudent to call off the workshop when the body of one of the farm managers is found dead just before the event, particularly considering the bizarre nature of the discovery - his body is covered with ice cubes meant for packing broccoli. But no, even though it seems obvious that one of the farm's ill-matched residents is the murderer, the conference must proceed. So, in addition to doing all the nuts-and-bolts chores of the workshop, Lark, and her ex-police detective husband Jay, find themselves right in the middle of the hunt for a killer.