Worth More Dead — Carol A. Guy

It is spring in Crescent Falls and time for the annual Thrift Store Fashion Show. Since the event will be held in the spacious social hall of the Crescent Falls United Methodist Church, amateur sleuth Adelaide McBride was acting as liaison between the church and the coordinator for the show, Gabriel, a high strung fashion buyer from out of town. But that's not all that is going on in the quaint little village. Local landlord and ousted town councilman, Lloyd Fletcher, has decided to seek his own kind of revenge against the residents by raising rents and refusing to sell a prime piece of real estate to one of three companies interested in relocating to Crescent Falls. When Lloyd is murdered, suspects abound, including a secret current lover, a past lover and just about anyone else who has had dealings with Lloyd in the past. Of course, Adelaide is on the case, helping behind the scenes, in spite of the turbulence in her personal life. Her relationship with Vernon Dexter, who runs the pharmacy that she and her late husband owned, meets a snag as Adelaide tries to sort out her conflicting feelings for her pastor, James Preston. As the investigation into Lloyd's death progresses, shocking surprises are revealed, not all of them having to do with the murder.