The Old Cranberry Ladies Garden Club Book Tour and Giveaway!

The Old Cranberry Ladies Garden Club by Bill Cusano
Genre: Cozy Mystery, Historical Mystery

The Ghost And The Key

With a pitchfork through the man’s groin and another through his chest, it is clear that someone had murdered Chester H. Cranberry. It’s not something that could have happened accidentally. But that was 192 years ago. As Mildred Cranberry, the current family matriarch, puts it, “We have two women, two keys, two pitchforks, and one dead two-timing man.” Who in their right mind would want to dig up that cold case and try to solve it? It’s not like the murderer could be prosecuted in 2024, right? But what if a key piece of evidence can be dug up (literally)? And what if a descendant of Chester’s illegitimate child can get her hands on it? Mildred will need more than the Old Cranberry Ladies Garden Club members to solve this bizarre case. The spiritual support she needs may not be what she expects when the ghost of Elcira Cranberry, the widow murderess herself, arrives to do what? Tell the truth or protect her reputation?

The Ladies Garden Club of Old Cranberry, Connecticut, has a 200-year history that has remained shrouded in secrecy for so long, it has been lost to history, until now. Elcira Cranberry and freedwoman Deborah Townsend knew the men of the town would have no interest in a garden club, so it was the perfect cover for their secret organization. Now, nearly two centuries later, the current members have no idea what those ladies were up to in the early 1800s, right here in Connecticut. But the secret will soon be out.

Links To The Ghost And The Key

The Widow Murdess

Connecticut, 1833. A year after Chester Cranberry’s unsolved murder, the town that he founded continues to suspect that his wife, Elcira, ended his life. With insufficient evidence to bring her to trial, and little effort to find another suspect, the town gossip labels her “The Widow Murderess.” But Elcira has seven children to feed, ranging in age from three to nine, and her nanny, Deborah, a freed slave, is pregnant with her husband’s illegitimate child.

All eyes are on these two women, expecting them to fail to keep the farm and the family together. When the general store cuts off Elcira’s credit and refuses to sell anything her farm produces, the alliance between Elcira and Deborah grows stronger, and the women set out to do something unthinkable, something that can cause one to be whipped and the other thrown in jail. They opened their home to runaway slaves seeking freedom along a secret route north. Behind the facade of a ladies’ garden club, the women run a clandestine school, teaching the formerly enslaved and runaways to read and write-a dangerous act that could destroy everything she’s built.

When a mysterious murder during a violent storm brings old secrets to light, the truth about Chester’s death threatens to surface. With the town’s suspicions mounting and powerful enemies closing in, Elcira must decide how much she’s willing to risk to protect those she loves and maintain the underground railroad that runs through her land.

A gripping historical novel about courage, family, and the price of freedom in pre-Civil War New England, The Widow Murderess explores how one woman’s determination to survive becomes a beacon of hope for those seeking liberty.

Links to Widow Murdess

The Sparrow And The Crow

The last time the crows circled the old farmhouse, her husband Chester was found dead and the town named her a murderess. Thirty years later, the truth she buried with him is stirring again, the country is splitting in two, and the family she fought so hard to hold together is being pulled apart by a war that hasn’t yet been declared.

Her grandson Auggie wants to fight for the Union. His mother, born to a Virginia plantation family, will do anything to drag him south instead. Millie — the rector’s daughter with golden hair and a satchel full of letters — waits at home for a boy who may never come back. And in the chapel behind the lilacs, Elcira and the women of her garden club continue the work no one is supposed to know about: sheltering freedom seekers as slave catchers tighten their grip on the Connecticut coast.

Then a telegram arrives. And another. And the war everyone said would never come has come for the Cranberry’s all at once.

Links To The Sparrow And The Crow

About Author:

Bill Cusano is an author, a retired deacon in the Episcopal Church and a believer that it is the process rather than the outcomes that matter most in our lives. Retired from the corporate world and an eight-year stint running a non-profit feeding program, Bill attacks every project as a ministry, giving it his full commitment. Needing to readjust to life after losing the love of his life to leukemia in April of 2024, Bill returned to writing full-time, resulting in The Old Cranberry Ladies Garden Club series, the motivation and inspiration for which came from his wife’s voracious appetite for reading historical fiction. While this is Bill’s debut novel, he has always been a writer, publishing short stories and poems early on, and then beginning a daily spiritual blog in 2008. You can follow Bill’s Reflections From The Garden Bench along with other writings on his Substack account.

Giveaway!!

Four exclusive gift boxes, each thoughtfully assembled with a gift card (winner’s choice of Amazon.com or Bookshop.org), a personal handwritten card from Elcira Cranberry, fragrant lilacs, and inspiring quote cards.

Tour Participants

06/20 Sudeshna Blogs THE GHOST AND THE KEY Review

06/21 The Page Ladies THE WIDOW MURDERESS Review

06/22 Country Mamas With Kids THE WIDOW MURDERESS Review

06/23 Sarcastically Yours, Jen THE OLD CRANBERRY LADIES GARDEN CLUB Showcase

06/24 Books Blog THE OLD CRANBERRY LADIES GARDEN CLUB Showcase

06/25 Country Mamas With Kids THE SPARROW AND THE CROW Review

06/25 meloplanner THE GHOST AND THE KEY Review

06/25 ScottLovelace. books THE WIDOW MURDERESS Review

06/26 Marbooks88 THE GHOST AND THE KEY Review

06/27 Stormy Nights Reviewing & Bloggin THE SPARROW AND THE CROW Review

Please follow the tour and leave comments, as they are always appreciated. Good luck & Thank you for stopping by. Have a blessed day .