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Beware False Profits

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Aggie Sloan-Wilcox and her minister husband Ed are enjoying a weekend away in New York City. But their weekend alone comes to a quick end when they learn that Joe Wagner, a member of their congregation in Ohio, has vanished while in New York on business. Following the few clues they have, they learn the last place he had been seen was a club where he performed as a female impersonator.

They arrive back in Emerald Springs, Ohio, just in time for Mayday!, the annual fundraiser for the local food bank where Joe worked. The fact that he's not there for it means something must have happened to him.

But Joe's disappearance takes a back seat when the mayor's wife dies during the fundraiser. Hazel Kefauvers was a difficult person always sticking her nose into everything. She'd just been made chair of the food bank's board and was making life difficult for everyone. Is that why she died? What part does Joe's disappearance play in the murder? And can Aggie find the missing punch bowl?

As with previous entries in the series, this is a fun cozy mystery. The multiple sub-plots did slow down the story once or twice, but not for very long. The story held plenty of twists before reaching the satisfying climax. The characters are wonderfully real, especially the members of Aggie's family. And Aggie narrates all of this with a nice sense of humor that keeps me coming back for more.

I can't wait to read Aggie's further adventures. If you enjoy a great cozy mystery, don't miss this series.

Being the wife of a minister is a full time job in itself. But Aggie Sloan-Wilcox is just as dedicated to the people of Emerald Springs as her husband, Ed, is. That does not mean Aggie thinks well of the ones who are given to hypocrisy, but Aggie manages to either avoid them or deal with them. Privacy for Aggie and Ed is almost nonexistent; even at home where the kids and Junie, Aggie's mother, are under the roof. So Aggie is excited to get some time away from Emerald Springs and be with Ed in New York for awhile. Unfortunately, getting away for awhile is harder than she realizes. They are in New York less than a day before Emerald Springs is calling.

Joe Wagner, the director of Helping Hands food bank, has disappeared. Since Joe disappeared while in New York, Ed and Aggie are appointed the task for searching for him. According to Maura, Joe's wife, Joe traveled to New York once a month for meetings. Seems Maura has no idea that Joe did not really travel to New York for meetings; once a month Joe is on stage as a female impersonator.

The mystery of Joe's disappearance is put on the back burner when the mayor's wife, Hazel Kefauver, falls dead during the food bank's annual fund-raiser. Detective Kirkor Roussos is not surprised to find Aggie on the scene. If someone in the area dies, Aggie is usually there when it happens; or so it seems. The suspect list is long. Mayor Kefauver is due to inherit everything. Everyone knows the couple was not too close and several knew of the mayor multiple affairs. There are rumors of financial fraud and Hazel knew about it. Perhaps Joe arranged her death to cover it up and disappeared to make sure he was not around to blame. Perhaps it was Chad Sutterfield; many know that Chad wants Joe's job and Hazel is too nosy for her own good. It's up to Aggie to find out what is going on, before someone else dies.

**** I must say that I love this mystery series. The character of Aggie may be a minister's wife, but she is definitely not starched under the collar (or as some would say "a bible thumper"). She is very down to earth. As to her thoughts about those around her, I find myself agreeing with her most of the time. Some of the secondary characters have personalities that remind me of real people I know. That tells me this author makes sure that even the characters that are not constantly in the spot light are well developed. Not all authors go to that length in order to make stories more realistic. If you enjoy testing your wits with a good mystery on cold winter nights, pick up this gem. Author Emilie Richards writes intelligent "who-dunnits" with some colorful characters. ****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

Aggie Sloan-Wilcox is the wife of Pastor Ed Wilcox of the Unitarian-Universal Church in Emerald Springs, Ohio; the beautiful serene town offers little peace to the Wilcox. There house is crowded because her mother lives with them until her Victorian house is renovated into a combination home and crafts shop.

Needing some romance in their lives, they go to New York City where they get a call from parishioner Mara Wagner who tells them her spouse Joe never came home from his monthly business trip. A clue leads Aggie and Ed to the Pussycat Club where they learn that Ed's "business" is dressing up in women's garb to perform on stage as a female impersonator. At a fund raiser to benefit a charity that Joe runs, his nemesis Hazel Kefauver keels over and dies. Later they find out she was poisoned; Aggie believes there is a link between the murder and the disappearance. While trying to discover who killed Hazel and where Joe is, Aggie looks for the church's' valuable antique punch bowl that she lost and is trying to learn the identity of the carpenter working at her mom's new home.

Fans of intelligently constructed cozies will thoroughly enjoy BEWARE FALSE PROFITS. The heroine seems so natural as a sleuth that the audience will find her investigations believable and think she would make a good police detective though she is an amateur. Although Aggie is a minister's wife, she defies the stereotypes because of her independence to do what she believes is the right thing even if that means swimming upstream against a current of parishioners, her spouse and a cop. She makes this a fine small town Midwest mystery.

Harriet Klausner

Emilie Richards is doing a terrific job of writing a Ministry Is Murder Series. In Beware False Profits she keeps the reader on edge all through the story for there are many, many mysteries in this story. Such as The Mystery of the unpaid carpenter, The mystery of the missing Chocolate covered church punch bowl, The Mystery of the missing Joe Wagner and his secret past and life, The Mystery of why her daughter refuses to be in the school play, The Mystery of the illegal food sales ect. It was a book I couldn't put down once I started it. I recommend it to anyone who loves a good cozy mystery. And all the adventures and daily life of she and her family are an added plus to the story.

When I saw this book for sale, I got the pleasurable thrill one gets when running into an old friend. Aggie and her family are wonderful people, and it's great to spend time with them. FOr this book, however, I kept thinking I'd read it before -- which I hadn't -- which isn't a good sign. It means that the author really needs to come up with some new ideas.

The book gets off to a rolicking start in a transvestite (drag queen) bar in New York. Aggie and her pastor husband (they're on a getaway weekend) have been asked to see if they can locate a husband who has gone missing, who has been traced back to this club. They discover that the man has been keeping a secret from his family, and head back home to break the news to his wife. Not long afterwards, one of the more irritating women in Aggie's town of Emerald Springs drops dead. Since she's associated with the organization headed by the still-missing man, Aggie suspects the two events are related. For various reasons, against the wishes of several people, including her husband and a policeman, Aggie begins to investigate both matters. Needless to say, she ends up in a dangerous situation before the book is over.

The best part of these books is Aggie's perfect family -- warm and loving, the kind of family anyone would want for themself -- but that also means there's a kind of Hallmark-card quality to these mysteries. They are definitely cozies, and if you like cozies, I suspect you will like this series.

I have read other books by Emilie Richards, and when I found the five book series this book is a part of, I just had to read it! I found myself enjoying this book, it was very hard to put down! It was funny, smart, and you find yourself really liking the characters. Hope she has many more in this series!

Aggie Sloan-Wilcox and her husband Ed, pastor of the Emerald Springs (OH) Unitarian-Universalist church, had hoped for a relaxing weekend in New York, but then one of their parishioners calls with the news that her husband, who was supposedly also in the city for a meeting, hasn't returned on time. They soon discover that the meeting was a fiction and that Joe Wagner was in fact a regular entertainer at the Pussycat Club, a bar much favored by transvestites. His secret life is a shock to everyone involved, especially since the food bank of which he was the life and soul is about to hold its major fund-raiser and desperately needs him on deck to run things--but nobody, not even his friends at the Club, know what's become of him. Returning home just in time for the festival, Aggie finds herself again caught up in a murder case when the mayor's managing wife is poisoned (with nicotine, no less). Can the two events possibly be related? Even if Joe returns, can his marriage be saved? What will become of his beloved diabetic son? And just who is camping in the attic of the house currently being renovated by Aggie and her realtor pal Lucy--and finishing up all the work that was supposed to be done by hired contractors? Full of humor, wonderful small-town characters, domestic crises (Aggie's older daughter has become a Terrible Teen), and unexpected twists, this is a cozy that should delight all lovers of the genre.

As usual Emilie has done it again. I enjoyed this latest mystery because the people are "common place" not wealthy like so many books these days. Besides, it takes place in Ohio and I live in Ohio.

Reviewed by Andrea Sisco

I enjoy Emilie Richards Ministry is Murder series. The plots are fun, the quirky characters make me smile and the dialogue is laugh-out-loud funny.

Joe Wagner is a member of Aggie and Ed's congregation. He's also the president of the local food bank. He disappears when Aggie and Ed are in New York City for a brief but romantic getaway. They discover that Joe had a secret life as a female impersonator at The Pussycat Club in Manhattan. After Aggie picks her jaw up from the ground, she begins to follow his trail.

But nothing is ever easy for Aggie. Trouble just finds her. During her investigation, the mayor's wife, mean-spirited Hazel Kefauver, is poisoned. The priceless church punch bowl goes missing (that's Aggie's fault) and Chad Sutterfield, the food bank warehouse manager, is involved in a lethal fire.

Where is the punchbowl? Who killed Hazel? Who had it in for Chad? Are all these events connected to Joe Wagner (if that's who he really is) and what about Joe's wife? Her behavior is not what you'd expect from a wife whose husband is missing. After all, you can clean house anytime--it's just not usually while you should be trying to find your husband. All questions will be answered in due time. Just keep turning the pages.

Armchair Interviews says: For a fun read, Beware False PROFITS won't disappoint. But don't miss out on all the fun. Pick up the other titles in the series also