Customer Reviews

Three Can Keep a Secret

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Being a Mennonite woman, a sometime motorcyclist and well acquainted with farm life, I found the book fun to read and quite accurate on all three items. The events happened a little too fast and furious for my taste, but the book is not boring. Wonder how the author is received in her own area? If you are looking for a quick escape from boredom, read this book.

Stella Crown owns and runs a dairy farm in Pennsylvania, but her life is anything bit smooth. She still recovers from injuries sustained over a month ago and grieves the death of a man who was like a father to her. Needing rest to foster her recuperation, Stella hires Mennonite widow Lucy Lapp who is accompanied by her eight year old daughter Tess.

Almost from the moment that Lucy arrives on the scene, Stella has doubts about the wisdom of hiring the woman. She has received anonymous warning calls that her employee is a murderess, hostile in-laws demand custody of Tess, graffiti where Lucy lives implying the woman is a tramp, and a social worker who has a report that claims Tess is not receiving proper care. However, as Stella gets to know Lucy, she wonders if someone has mounted a successful smear campaign to destroy the woman. Stella also worries about her biker friend Lenny, who was beaten so severely he was hospitalized. He refuses to confide in her, which makes stubborn Stella try to help him even while she wonders why he rejects going to the police.

The protagonist is an interesting complex character who is impressed with biker culture while running her own dairy farm. These seemingly incompatible items somehow seem apropos with Stella. The mysteries surrounding the death of Lucy's husband and Lenny's refusal to fight against the malevolent bikers keep readers at a high alert trying to figure out both mysteries. Judy Clemens is a gifted mystery writer who is not going to remain a secret with novels like this one.

Harriet Klausner

The second installment of the Stella Crown series is wonderful. My bloodshot eyes attest to the fact that it can't be put down; maybe I shouldn't have read it at bedtime.

Only Judy Clemens can pull off a single Mennonite woman who milks cows by day and rides Harleys by night. And the tattoos. Wow. What a bold move.

Way to go Judy! Give us more!!!

Three Can Keep a Secret is the second book in Judy Clemen's fist series of books, known as the Stella Crown Mysteries. Like with her later Reaper series, the plots of the previous novels are given away by the main character (the narrator of the tale) each book. This enables the reader to fully understand the background to Stella Crown and her interactions and feelings towards other characters in this book, but does ruin all the surprises and plot of the previous adventures for you if you liked this one, and want to check out previous novels. Clemens is a good writer, who has developed, very likeable and readable strong female characters in both series, but needing to tell the whole plot rather than just hint at little bits without giving it all away of former novels is the only thing that probably holds the author back from the leagues of the top selling authors.

In the second book in the series, Stella's doctor and other pressures force her to admit she can't run her dairy farm by herself, at least until she's recovered from the serious injuries she now has from what happened in the first book. So Stella places an advertisement for a live in farmhand and is dismayed by the quality of applicants. However luckily a young woman named Lucy turns up one day to apply. She does seem to know her way around a dairy farm and since Stella's in a lot of pain, doesn't hold out high hopes for better candidates she decides to just hire her on the spot. However it's not long before some red flags start to appear that may prove trusting her gut was a big mistake. Firstly Lucy has a young daughter named Tess, who she wants to stay with her on the farm. An anonymous called warns her to get rid of Lucy, some religious extremists from Lucy's former church seem to not like Lucy attending the local less extreme belief local congregation. Her in laws keep turning up to hassle her, and there is a strong rumour going around that her husband didn't die of an illness as Lucy claimed, but he may have been murdered by the woman. There's also a side story with Stella's biker barn friend Lenny, that may get both her and Lenny killed involving his past which he's angrily determined to keep secret from her.

The first book in the series was Till the Cows Come Home, Three Can Keep a Secret is no where the quality of that book but it's still a fun read and it's nice to see what Stella has got up to after the first book. If you'd read this as a standalone you wouldn't quite be convinced or understand the hard daily life of the small time farmer as Stella doesn't actually do much farm work in this one. Even though she had a much more experienced farmhand in the prior novel, she constantly had to drop whatever she was doing off farm, to get back, milk the cows and deal with every other little thing on the farm in that book. In this one, that doesn't seem to be much of a factor, even though in reality that need should be more.

Still there's enough here to make me want to read the next book in the series To Thine Own Self Be True, especially considering how good the entire Reaper series is.

This was a fun quick read with very likeable characters. Clemen's Stella Crown, her farm and her friends, Harley driving and not, engage you fully from the first pages to the last. The plot develops quickly but with some very unexpected turns.

Stella Crown is trying to keep her head above water, which is difficult in the farming business today. She needs a new farmhand, since her long-time friend and former hand has died. She needs a new heifer barn after her old one burned down. And she is waiting for her beloved Harley Davidson bike to be rebuilt after a nasty crash.

The new farmhand is a Mennonite widow, Lucy Lapp. Lucy comes with baggage: a young daughter, former in-laws who are looking to make trouble, and some religious issues. But she is a hard worker and knows what she's doing, so Stella is glad to have her. Not so happy about the graffiti which shows up on the barn one night. Lucy turns out to have more backbone than one might expect, given her life. It's a treat to watch her deal with her husband's family.

One of the friends working on her bike, Lenny, is behaving strangely. He doesn't want to talk about it, and generally seems miserable. Does it have something to do with his past, of which Stella knows very little? Or the young, scruffy, and rude couple who shows up at the bike shop one day?

Stella is also trying to sort out where her heart lies. Abe, her old sweetie, is doing her books and making attempts to resume their old relationship. This is a little difficult, since in TILL THE COWS COME HOME, he brought home another woman. She's gone, but her memory lingers. Stella had a low-grade romance with another man, who turned out to be not at all what he said he was, and they did not part amicably. But Stella stills has a yen, and isn't sure what to do about her memories and Abe.

Stella slogs on, putting out one small fire after another. This takes a physical and emotional toll on her. Then there's the tornado, which really messes up her life. Her extended family comes through for her, as they have before and will again. Stella's public persona as a tough, Harley riding, assertive woman is believable, as is her not-so-public kind-hearted nature and willingness to give people a second chance. She's a strong woman doing a tough job.

Clemens has done a very good job on her second book. Stella grows as a person, as do some of the continuing characters. While the reader knows that Stella's life won't ever be easy, it's clear that this is the life she wants, the life she needs. The endless work which is part of farming is also part of THREE CAN KEEP A SECRET, which lends verisimilitude to Stella's life without bogging the reader down in superfluous details. It's just Clemen's showing us what Stella and her help do on a daily basis.

THREE CAN KEEP A SECRET is a good mystery, with great characters and an interesting setting. What more can a person want? I look forward to the next book in the series; if Clemens keeps writing like this, it will be a definite pleasure to follow this series.