Emilie Richards

http://www.emilierichards.com/

Emilie Richards continues her popular Ministry is Murder Mysteries for Berkley Prime Crime with book four, A Lie for a Lie

Emilie Richards is known for her many bestselling romance and women's fiction novels. But one day a character with whom she had too much in common began to make ripples in her imagination. "You think you've seen things?" Aggie Sloan-Wilcox asked. "How many dead bodies have you found on your front porch?" And Emilie had to put away the work in progress and find out exactly what Aggie meant.

Aggie-Sloan Wilcox is a minister's partner, just like Emilie, although their husbands serve very different churches. While Emilie writes novels, Aggie has found a calling, too, she solves murders, and the tiny town of Emerald Springs, Ohio seems to have more than its share. So while Aggie raises her two precocious daughters and tries to fit into church and community life, she also searches for killers, a sometimes hazardous hobby.

A Lie for a Lie tells the story of Grady Barber, former resident of Emerald Springs, songwriter and film star, who comes back to judge the Emerald Springs Idyll, a supersized talent show that the local charity divas have staged to raise money for a new pediatric wing at the hospital. Aggie, who is trying to avoid murder scenes is persuaded to be Grady's gofer, but after days of putting up with his childish demands and outrageous manners, she is not surprised to find him dead in his dressing room.

Who hated Grady enough to kill him? Sister Nora, the ex-wife circus evangelist who wants to build a biosphere in quiet Emerald Springs to showcase global warming? Contestants from former talent shows? The teenager finalist from Aggie's own church who discovered Grady's private voice lessons came with a price? Of course Aggie doesn't agree with the local police, so she is forced to set off on her own complicated quest.

All the Ministry is Murder novels are "suggested by" Old Testament tales, and Beware False Profits is no exception. Emilie says that's just part of the fun. The series has been well reviewed and the Wall Street Journal called it "delightful," an adjective Emilie accepts with pleasure.

This award-winning author has moved frequently. Settled now in northern Virginia, the family has lived in six other states—Florida, Louisiana, California, Arkansas, Ohio and Pennsylvania—as well as Australia. She is the mother of four, the grandmother of one, and like Junie, Aggie's mother, she is a quilter. Unlike Aggie she does not solve murders, for which her husband's congregation, is grateful.