Praise for Three Can Keep a Secret...
"In this second Stella Crown mystery, Clemens has a winner." -Publishers Weekly
When Stella Crown hires a new farmhand to help run her Pennsylvania dairy business, she gets more than she bargained for. Her new helper is a Mennonite widow who arrives burdened not only with grief, but with rumors of infidelity and murder...and a young child. Before you know it, Stella, battling her own deep sorrow over the loss of her long-time friend and employee Hank as well as worries over her shaky finances, copes with an influx of nasty in-laws, heartbroken beaus, and spiteful vandalism. Determined to protect herself and her farm, Stella sets out to discover the truth while trying to give her new employee a respectful benefit of the doubt.
Meanwhile, Stella's good friend and fellow biker, Lenny, is riding a crisis. At one moment jovial, the next angry and suspicious, Lenny is haunted by pain and secrets he won't share with Stella. His bizarre behavior is soon complimented by vicious attacks on his home and his business.
Judy Clemens was born into the Mennonite faith, but discovered her motorcycle leanings later in life. At home in rural Ohio, she lives with her husband, two children, and three housecats. Three Can Keep a Secret is the second novel of the Stella Crown series after the Anthony and Agatha Award-nominated Till the Cows Come Home.
www.judyclemens.com
About the Author :
Judy Clemens was born and raised a Mennonite, and is still involved with the church. She lives in rural Ohio, where she is pleased to see women in leadership in every aspect of the community. Dairy farming is not a part of her daily life, for which she is grateful, since it's such a difficult job. She lives in an old farmhouse with her family, and their livestock consists of four housecats.
Review :
If you haven't yet had the pleasure of meeting one of the most original figures in recent crime fiction--Stella Crown, 29-year-old Pennsylvania dairy farmer and dedicated biker--Judy Clemens' perfectly realized second book about her is a good place to start.Stella is a lean, tall, tough woman who wears the tattoo of a cow's skull on the back of her neck. She manages the precarious business of being an independent dairy farmer with the help of loyal friends--bikers from her club, HOG (for Harley Owner's Group), as well as neighboring small landholders, many of them Mennonites with varying ideas of religious freedom. But every day seems to bring a new challenge, making her wonder if it's all worth it.
In Till the Cows Come Home, her first outing, she survived threats to her milk supply (poisoned by a large company that wanted her farm) and a nearly fatal road accident that seriously damaged her body and bike.
Almost paralyzed with grief after the death of Howie, her longtime friend and hired hand, Stella takes on the troubled but extremely competent and hard-working Lucy Lapp--who arrives complete with an 8-year-old daughter, a changing story about how her husband died and a cloud of rumors spread by a radical Mennonite church in her hometown. Adding to Stella's confusion is the refusal of her biker friend Lenny to explain why his garage business is being attacked.
The elements of Stella's life, as diverse as they are, ring loud and true, thanks to Clemens' ear for what farmers and bikers sound like, especially when they're under pressure. Next time you pour yourself a glass of low-fat milk, think of Stella going from shoveling out a barn to having fun at abikers' annual pig roast. Dick Adler, Chicago Tribune, July 24, 2005.
