FOUL PLAY IN THE GYM When it comes to running a successful garage sale, Sarah Winston believes in doing her homework. She also believes in giving back. But when she agrees to manage an athletic equipment swap, she doesn’t bargain on an uncharitable killer. The day of the event, the school superintendent is found dead in the gymnasium. HAS SARAH PLAYING DEFENSE Suddenly the murder suspects are … DEFENSE
Suddenly the murder suspects are the school board members—including the husband of a very difficult client who’s hired Sarah to run a high-end sale and demands she do her bidding. In between tagging and haggling, Sarah studies the clues to see who wanted to teach the superintendent a lesson. But as she closes in on the truth, the killer intends to give her a crash course on minding her own business . . .
Praise for the Sarah Winston Garage Sale Mysteries
“There’s a lot going on in this charming mystery, and it all works . . . Well written and executed, this is a definite winner.”—RT Book Reviews, 4 Stars on All Murders Final!
“Full of garage-sale tips…amusing. A solid choice for fans of Jane K. Cleland’s Josie Prescott Antique Mystery series.”
—Library Journal on Tagged for Death
“A slam dunk for those who love antiques and garage sales . . . surprising twists and turns.” —Kirkus Reviews on A Good Day to Buy
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I loved I Know What You Bid Last Summer. Sherry Harris’s Sarah Winston Garage Sales Mystery series is original and unpredictable, but still falls within the cozy mystery category.
Each time a new Sarah Winston Garage Sale Mystery releases, I wonder how amazing author, Sherry Harris, will top the previous book she wrote for the series. I’m never disappointed, and my hat’s off to Ms. Harris who consistently raises the bar for her readers’ entertainment.
Sarah Winston is busy organizing a swap meet in the high school gym when the lights suddenly go out and she’s badly beaten before the intruder steals some valuable antique and autographed sports items. A school official is later found murdered nearby with a vintage sports item used as the weapon leaving the police and district attorney’s office working overtime to find clues and suspects before anyone else is harmed.
Favorite characters from previous books make appearances such as Mike ‘the Big Cheese’ Titone, Seth, the handsome D.A., and Stella, Sarah’s landlord and friend. The story’s pacing is swift, and frequent humor adds to the reading fun. Ms. Harris always inserts nifty plot scenes into her stories that are totally unexpected and one of the many reasons I enjoy her books so much.
Sarah feels like finding the stolen sports items will lead them all to the killer. Building up to an awesome climactic ending; the police include Sarah in a sting operation set up that can only be called, “I Know What You Bid Last Summer.” I highly recommend this action-packed Cozy Mystery!
Garage Sale Tips included.
Sarah Winston is working with the local school board on a sports equipment swap and auction. What she doesn’t plan on, however, is that someone will steal a good amount of the auction items before the swap. And then the school superintendent is found dead in the school gym the day before, Sarah needs to figure out what happened!
The more I read of this series, the more I really love Sarah. I enjoyed seeing her single in this book, while I did really feel for her. I’m hoping that this is the end of the love triangle, I’m getting a bit tired of it. I thought that this story was really interesting and I was taken completely by surprise at the end. I cannot wait to read more of this series!
I Know What You Bid Last Summer, book 5 in the Sarah Winston Garage Sale Mysteries by Sherry Harris, is another fantastic installment in the world of professional garage sale organization. In this book, Sarah is organizing an athletic equipment swap where people bring in used equipment to sell or trade. As Sarah is setting up for the event, the lights go out and she is beaten by an intruder who also steals a bunch of sports memorabilia. When the superintendent of the school district is found dead on the day of the swap everyone, including Sarah, pulls out all the stops to locate the person who assaulted Sarah and murdered the superintendent. The suspect list is huge and includes several townsfolk including members of the school board.
I really enjoy the Garage Sale Mysteries by Sherry Harris. As a lover of garage sales, yard sales, flea markets, etc., a cozy setting of this nature makes me happy. Sarah is a great protagonist and has been in such a way that I feel like I know her personally. She has very realistic characteristics and the author really brings Sarah to life. I love all the secondary characters the author has created for this series, too. Seth, Mike “the big cheese” Titone, Stella, Awesome, and all the rest compliment this series so well.
As I said about the first 4 books in the series, I Know What You Bid Last Summer is a fantastic cozy mystery full of twists, turns, distractions, and red herrings. There are suspenseful, humorous, and heartbreaking moments that are sure to keep the reader engaged. The author sets up many of the characters as the potential suspect and expertly pulls the tablecloth out from underneath them without spilling the truth.
The Sarah Winston Garage Sale Mysteries of one of my favorite cozy series’. The author keeps the stories fresh and entertaining. The characters are wonderful and I love the setting. I’m happy that Kensington continues to release Sherry Harris’s books. I get my copies from NetGalley but I eventually also purchase paperback copies of each book for my bookshelf.
Spoiler Alert:
Shocked!! I was truly shocked by the beginning of this book. I really hoped CJ and Sarah could put their lives back together after the scandal that rocked them away from one another. I stared at the section where CJ moved to Florida without Sarah for a long while (with my jaw on the floor, most likely). Just not what I was expecting. On the other hand, I really enjoy Sarah with Seth, so we’ll see how things play out.
I was given a copy of this book to review.
“I Know What You Bid Last Summer” earns 5/5 Killer Price Tags…Engaging!!
I am a newbie, so I recognize that events have occurred and relationships established, but there were enough helpful references that kept me totally engaged. Garage sales planner? A clever theme for this cozy. Sarah Winston is set to manage an athletic equipment swap meet at Ellington High, but has also taken on a “lasagna project” to taste test and covertly gather samples of local lasagnas. Her friend Chef Angelo has entered a bake-off contest, and wants some inside information about the competition. All of this seems reasonably innocent, right? Well, it is a cozy “mystery,” and criminal activity is lurking…an assault, a theft, a murder! Engaging and entertaining Sherry’s first-person narrative is well-written sharing Sarah’s inner thoughts along with excellent descriptions to set the suspense. She doesn’t rely just on telling the story by including fun banter to help illustrate tone and personality. Well-plotted story with several scenarios are investigated, but Sarah mostly collaborates with, not ignores, law enforcement. Sarah is a sympathetic, yet wounded, character when it comes to intimate relationships, so there are close friendships, but not much romance. A great bonus rounds out the experience with “Garage Sale Tips” for those who wish to include food and drink—Setting Up a Pretzel Bar! I highly recommend this book, and me, I’m off to check out the other books in the series, too.
Sarah Winston, a garage sale expert, knows how to run a successful garage sale and has made a business out of it. As part of a charity event, Sarah volunteers her expertise and agrees to manage an athletic equipment swap. While preparing the event, she is knocked out by a would-be robber and then the day of the event discovers the dead body of the local superintendent.
Sarah becomes an amateur detective and compiles a list of murder suspects that all seem to be other members of the school board. With her quick wit and sleuthing talents, Sarah must find the killer before the killer makes her another item for the dumpster.
This book is more than a charming cozy mystery; the author gives you inside tips into the world of garage sale selling and buying. The mystery, suspense, and moments of comedy keep you interested, while you try to guess who the culprit is.
Dollycas’s Thoughts
Happy Dance! I am all caught up on this series!
Sarah has taken on the schools athletic swap meet. Who knew arranging bats, balls, and hockey sticks could be such a huge undertaking and dangerous too. The night before the event Sarah is working late when she is attacked and several items, including the expensive silent auction items, are stolen. The following day is even worse when Sarah finds the school superintendent has been killed. The murder has to be someone involved at the school, maybe even someone on the school board. Can Sarah find the killer before the police? Maybe she can ask a few questions while organizing and running a garage sale for a wife of one of the board members. Or maybe she should just stay out of it . . . like that would ever happen
Sarah Winston is a such a great character. She has become an expert at garage sales, thrift stores, swap meets, and online buy and sell sites. I wish I had half her knowledge and energy. She has also become quite adept at solving murder mysteries. People open up to her in a way they never open up to police. She also has no problem asking for help from Mike ‘the Big Cheese’ Titone, but she just may be pushing him a little too far. Her romantic life has had been in flux since this series started and I still have hope that she will end up with the man I have been rooted for.
Solving the murder and the thefts has Sarah running all over the place and not thinking about the danger she is putting herself in. She is warned several times, but her independence makes her act without thinking the situation through. The author takes us on a journey as Sarah uncovers more secrets and lies. A couple of corkscrew twists really has my eyes glued to the pages.
In addition to the main mystery, there is a subplot that had me almost rolling on the floor laughing. All I can say is lasagna! The lengths Sarah goes to for her friends was not only funny but heartwarming and made me very hungry. Guess what we had for supper the night after I finished this book.
I love the way Sherry Harris writes. She describes everything in such a way that it is like watching a movie. Her characters feel like old friends, you want to get involved in their lives. She plots the story so well with perfect amounts of suspense and humor. She draws us in and holds our attention making it almost impossible to take a break from the story for food or sleep. Her worldbuilding is excellent.
I have enjoyed this entire series and highly recommend them all.
Enjoyed the characters very much. Sort of Stephanie Plum meets Miss Marple in a New Enland style.
Loved it. Great read for anyone who enjoys garage sales and antique. Informative.
Have you ever read a book and just known as soon as you were only a few pages in that you were going to love it? And that you’d have to look for everything else written by the author so that you could read them all asap? Well, this just happened to me with I Know What You Bid Last Summer by Sherry Harris. It’s the 5th book in the Sarah Winston Garage Sale Series, and it’s a great cozy story that grabs the reader from the very first page, with the protagonist, Sarah Winston, being asked to go on a lasagna tasting mission by her friend Angelo (sign me up, too, please!!!), and then fast forward to the body that Sarah finds skewered with an antique ski pole at the swap meet she’s setting up at the local high school. Before she can blink, similar antique ski poles are showing up all over the place in an effort to get Sarah to back off her unofficial investigation! Incredibly fast-paced, I whizzed through this fun cozy mystery, and now must go back and read the first 4 books! A+
So pleased to have found another cozy mystery series to thoroughly enjoy! So good!
Sarah is running a sport equipment exchange in a local school gym. The night before, as she is about to leave, someone attacks her. Despite the attack, the event goes off without a hitch – until Sarah finds the dead body of the school superintendent. What is going on?
This is another fabulous, fast paced read in one of my favorite series. There are several different avenues that Sarah investigates along the way, and they all come together beautifully for the climax. Meanwhile, we get some development in several series threads and a very funny sub-plot. Sarah continues to grow as a character, and the rest of the cast, both new and returning, are fantastic. The writing makes me feel like I’ve visited Sarah’s corner of the world.
NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.
Coping with the break-up with long-time boyfriend/husband, CJ, who had moved to Florida, Sarah is keeping herself busy. Sarah Winston is well known for her ability to plan, organize and hold garage sales in the Ellington, Massachusetts area. Always willing to offer her expertise, Sarah has been asked to run the Athletic Equipment Swap for Ellington High School. Organizing the items donated by sport, item etc., she is attacked when the power is shut down. Unable to determine who her attacker is, all Sarah can remember is the smell of cologne. Unable to really determine what has been taken, all Sarah is able to determine is that many of the silent auction items have been taken. After the swap is held after assistance from many of Sarah’s friends and acquaintances, Sarah goes to the supply room to get a towel to mop up spilled coffee and finds the Superintendent, Melba Harper, dead – stabbed with an antique ski pole. Although she is warned not to get involved, she can’t help to try to find the missing silent auction items and who was her attacker. Along with trying to find out who is responsible, Sarah is asked to help her good friends, Angelo and Rosalie DiNapoli, owners of DiNapoli’s Roast Beef and Pizza, to scope out the other restaurants lasagna that will be their competition in the Bedford Lasagna Bake-Off. This provided a little twist of humor in this storyline.
Having not read any of the earlier books in this series, I found the characters slightly under-developed but enjoyable. Many times, in the storyline it seemed as if the same item was repeated. The tips at the end of the book on buying and selling at a garage sale were interesting.
I was so excited to get a chance to read this one early! I love the series! In I Know What You Bid Last Summer, Sherry Harris once again presents us with a first-rate cozy mystery for any mystery lovers. A path of clues to this intricate plot is laid out throughout the novel as Sarah investigates, but you are a better arm-chair sleuth than I if those clues lead you latch on to the villain before Sarah figures it out. One of the many things that I love about this series is the way Ms. Harris creates Sarah’s world for us. These daily life vignettes pull me into the story as much as the excitement of the mystery. It is the characters that I love most and that is one of the places that Ms. Harris shines.. Sarah and her friends are people that I would love to know and in fact feel that I do know. I received an advanced readers’ copy of this book via NetGalley and I appreciate the opportunity to enjoy it early and share my delight with my friends and followers.