Named 2016 Best Mystery Series by Texas Association of Authors. When Madison Reynolds finds herself widowed and penniless before forty, she does the only thing she knows to do – she packs up her teenage twins and moves back home with her eighty-year-old grandmother. Life in The Sisters, Texas has not changed much since she’s been gone, but at least her best friend Genesis is there to soften the … friend Genesis is there to soften the transition back into small-town life.
To make ends meet, Madison opens In a Pinch Temporary Services. Her first real client is Ronny Gleason, but when she shows up for the first day of work at the Gleason Poultry Farm, Madison makes a gruesome discovery. The dead body she finds belongs to Mr. Gleason. When a local man is arrested for murder, Madison takes on the job of proving his innocence. Even though she is not a private investigator, both mothers are desperate: Lucy Ngyen to clear her son’s name, and Madison to pay her bills. But as she begins asking questions around town, her interference is not welcome.
With a daughter determined to go back to Dallas, a son settling into small town life, a feisty grandmother who knows all the town gossip, bill collectors calling, and now someone trying to keep her silent, Madison has no time for re-kindling her high school crush with police chief Brash deCordova. She has her hands full just trying to stay alive.
If she survives her amateur investigation, Maddy has a decision to make. Will she go back to her life in Dallas, or will she build a new life here in The Sisters?
Read the Full Award-Winning Series, in Order. FREE with Kindle Unlimited!
Book One: Chicken Scratch
Book Two: When the Stars Fall
Book Three: Stipulations and Complications
Book Four: Home Again: Starting Over
Book Five: Genny’s Ballad
Book Six: Christmas in The Sisters
Book Seven: The Lilac Code
Book Eight: Wildflower Wedding: With a Killer Reception
Book Nine: To Be Announced
All available FREE in Kindle Unlimited!more
Loved this series. This book started it for me and I am going through the series one right after another! Good plot and great characters. Love “Gramma Bert”. We all need a grandmother like her!
I loved it! I can only hope the author has more episodes to enjoy!
Cute cozy mystery. Lots of information about raising chickens that made me glad I don’t. Good characters and an amazingly good mystery for a cozy.
I think if the “f” word was eliminated from this book it could’ve been a chapter shorter. The casual, crude references to sex are disgusting. I would not recommend this book and it doesn’t even rate one star.
This is a well-written book with some very likable characters and some pretty funny moments. I am going to read it multiple times.
Warning; you will read the complete life and death of a chicken in detail.
Maddy turns out to be another stupid lead female. Over all the mystery was good. However, Maddy and the police knowing that she has had several attempts on her life and mystery phone calls, do NOTHING. Maddy goes about town even at 3 AM by herself, most often not telling anyone. So DUH, she gets her self locked into an incinerator. The police also do not do anything about the cock fights even though every one in town knows when and where they happen. The place isn’t that big. So one has to kick all the stupid stuff out to focus on the mystery itself.
Chicken Scratch by Becki Willis is the first book in The Sisters Texas Series, and what a fabulous beginning it is! Madison (Maddy) Reynolds is back in her hometown of Juliet, Texas (sister city to Naomi, Texas), newly widowed and with her twin teens, Bethani and Blake. Unfortunately, Maddy inherited nothing but debt and heartache, so she opened In a Pinch Temporary Services to make ends meet. No job is obviously too menial or degrading, which is why Maddy finds herself knee deep in chicken poop, maintaining chicken houses for a week. But nowhere in the contract for this job does it say anything about finding a dead body.
What comes next is a delightful cozy mystery full of well-crafted characters and a little restaurant that sounds like the perfect place to grab dessert and a cup of coffee.
Maddy stumbles across the dead body in chapter 1, and she quickly becomes embroiled in a multi-layered mystery that proves quite dangerous, if not downright deadly. And running into her high school crush from 20 years ago, Brash deCordova, adds a new level of complication to Maddy’s already complicated life.
The romance level in Chicken Scratch between several characters starts off quite tepid and uncertain, providing just enough intrigue and speculation on how some of these relationships will play out by the end of book 1 and going into book 2. Be prepared to fall in love with so many characters, especially Granny Bert, Genesis Baker, and Cutter Montgomery. I know I’m already head over heels!
this is the first book in the series ,, it was funny and sad. Maddie has just moved back to town with her twins after her husband dies. now she is working in a chicken farm cleaning out the houses. what could go wrong, you will have to read the book. oh the first time she sees her crush from high school she is throwing up when the now sheriff pulls up.
Chicken Scratch #1 – This is my first book by this author and I was greatly surprised at how well written, well thought out and laced with humor and intrigue; this little gem is packed. The area is near and dear to my heart since I was born in the area. The people, while not as easily identifiable as in a Jeff Abbott novel, are locals I know. The Texas speak is just as if Ms. Willis and I were at the Creamery (TAMU) sharing milk shakes and local gossip. The kinks and knots in the plot made it hard to put down the book, even to get a tea refill. You can’t help but like the characters and root for them. The story, filled with life stories, is actually pretty substantial, not fluff, and Ms. W is an entertaining storyteller. 5*
When The Stars Fall #2 – This book is better than Chicken Scratch (#1), which is a good book, too. A lot of suspense, along with developing romances amongst several characters, keeps the reader immersed in this substantial story. Like the first book, the baddie is easily figured out, but the story is well worth reading. There are too many of the well rounded, well developed characters to shout out separately, but they’re all interesting, funny, sincere and just plain folk. The Big House becomes a prominent character and helps the family with a huge change to their lives, maybe. Not a cliffhanger, but there’s a tease about the future of Big and Madison. 5*
Stipulations and Complications #3 – This is a heavy, suspense filled book full of dark secrets and mysteries with the past and the present colliding and the darkness is felt by all involved. Yet, there’s plenty of good and love along with the humor. This intriguing, substantial read is hard to put down with its interesting storylines and well thought out characters. This book is on the level with DeMille, Follette, Grisham and Ludlum. 5*
Home Again: Starting Over #4 – Amen Sister to that comment about Texans and wannabes! This series must be read in order; they keep getting better and better. I love the fact that what happens in the earlier books are just slightly mentioned, instead of being retold. All the characters keep growing and their past and secrets coming to light as the books go on. Multiple storylines in this book and the twists and surprises just keep the reader glued to the pages. I’ve chain read the first four books and don’t have the next two available to me. But I’m diving into book seven, the newly released The Lilac Code. 5*
The Lilac Code #7 – Trouble even finds them outside of Texas! I missed the two books before this one, but it was still an interesting read. I was disappointed with the ending – the gun in her hand was forgotten. But the pages were full of intrigue and suspense, and the characters were intense. Again, there were multiple stories occurring, along with the main story. Current events were featured, which isn’t surprising with all that’s happened in Texas and other U.S. locations in the past year alone. While not a cliffhanger, there’s definitely more books in the future. I chain read five books in three days and never once was bored with this series. 5*