Murder on Mulberry Lane (Mildred Wiggins Cozy Mysteries) by Lori Soard #Review #Giveaway #GreatEscapesBookTour @AuthorLoriSoard

Murder on Mulberry Lane
(Mildred Wiggins Cozy Mysteries)
by Lori Soard

About Murder on Mulberry Lane

Murder on Mulberry Lane (Mildred Wiggins Cozy Mysteries)
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – Fictional town of Maple Hollow, Indiana
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Independently Published
Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 8, 2026
Print length ‏ : ‎ 211 pages
Paperback
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8185329344
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0H8293CY1
Digital
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0GX2Z9NP6

Small town. Big secrets. One woman who refuses to mind her own business.

Mildred Wiggins isn’t nosy․

She just… pays attention․

It’s been fifty years since Mildred moved to the small Indiana town of Maple Hollow․ She knows her neighbors by name‚ their habits‚ and when something isn’t right․ The man living near her on Mulberry Lane has been setting off every alarm she has․

He’s rude․ Secretive․ Always in trouble with someone. When he’s found dead at the bottom of his porch steps‚ most of the neighbors are not surprised․

The police deem it an accident․

Mildred calls it suspicious․

Armed with her surprising powers of observation‚ her keen sense of justice‚ and her exceedingly opinionated rooster‚ Sir Alphonse Beauregard Clucksworth III‚ Mildred sets out to solve the case․ Because in a town like Maple Hollow, everyone knows everyone… which means anyone could be hiding something.

The deeper Mildred digs‚ the more she believes his death was not an accident․

It was murder․

But it will take more than curiosity to prove it. Will Mildred be the only one brave enough to ask the questions no one else dares?

After all, in Maple Hollow‚ secrets don’t disappear․

They wait․

Dollycas’s Thoughts

Mildred Wiggins is the self-appointed neighborhood watch. She has been a resident of Maple Hollow, Indiana, for 50 years, a small town with big secrets. She knows everyone and feels it is her duty to watch over them. She is usually accompanied by her rooster‚ Sir Alphonse Beauregard Clucksworth III, and she pays attention to his clucks. Her husband Harry tries to rein her in, but she is a force that can’t be controlled.

Their focus of late has been her neighbor, Trent Hill. He sent her and her casserole away when she tried to welcome him and his wife, Veronica, 10 months ago. Since then, she has documented his suspicious behavior in her “neighborhood notebook”. He has built up a good share of enemies in a very short time. The neighbors are not surprised when Mildred finds him dead at the bottom of his porch steps. She knew it was just a matter of time before someone would relieve the neighborhood of his presence, although the police deem his death an accident. Mildred knows better. Sheriff Colton Briggs begs her to leave the investigation to him; knowing Mildred the way he does, he knows that’s not going to happen.

So Mildred, with her “keen sense of justice”, is ready to ask the hard questions and reveal secrets to solve the case.

Ms. Soard has created some very entertaining characters for this series. Mildred is a hoot. She is a strong, opinionated woman with a strong, opinionated rooster. Oh my gosh, if I meet a woman carrying a rooster around in a canvas bag with little ventilation windows, I would back right up. He’s a rescue. He arrived with injured feet, looked around, and decided he had found his new home. Mildred has a “perch” where she watches her neighbors through her binoculars, making notes about everything she sees: who has visitors, who took their garbage out early, who left their decorations way past the holiday, etc. She knows Sheriff Colton Briggs, and he knows her. Colton hopes her husband, Harry, would be on his side, but he knows his wife better than Colton, and he picks his battles judiciously.

The murder mystery has tentacles into a past mystery, and the people involved have held on to secrets for over twenty-nine years. It took a lot of work to bring all the clues together to get to a point where people needed to talk and reveal what happened all those years ago and how it connected to Trent Hill’s murder. I enjoyed all the twists and turns and how Mildred and Colton worked together to keep everybody talking and through the chaos until all was revealed and an arrest was made.

Murder on Mulberry Lane was different than what I expected.  Mildred is a treasure. I love when a senior sleuth is involved in the mystery. She and Sir Alphonse Beauregard Clucksworth III brought some seriously funny moments to the story, but the last few chapters were heavy on my heart. So much happened, and so many were involved; I am intrigued to see what happens next for the people in Maple Hollow. I hope we don’t have to wait too long to find out.

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Thank you to the author for providing me with an ARC.

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About Lori Soard

Lori Soard has a PhD in Journalism and Creative Writing, but she’s hardly the stuffy professor type. She loves nothing better than a good romantic comedy and thinks the good guy should always win, and the ending should always be happy.

From an early age, Lori started honing her storytelling skills. As a kid, she was rarely seen without a book in her hand, even walking and reading at the same time. Her first stories were about the world around her. At twenty she wrote her first novel, which she admits was horrible. At twenty-one, she sold her first article to a local newspaper. Once she got that taste of having others read her work and realizing that she could reach others and touch their hearts, there was no turning back for this natural-born writer.

“If I can make someone’s day just a tiny bit better,” Lori says, “if I can make them smile even though they are sad, make them think things could be better, make them understand how much God loves them, then I have accomplished something. I write my stories, articles, and books with that one person in mind who really needs the message. If I can change one person’s perspective, then I’ve succeeded.”

Lori is a lifelong Hoosier and lives in southern Indiana with her high school sweetheart turned husband. They have two grown daughters and two granddaughters. She always has her critters surrounding her, including a couple of miniature dachshunds and several rescue cats. “During the extreme low points in life, it has been my animals that have seen me through. There is nothing like the deep devotion of a dog or the unconditional love of a cat.” Lori adores animals, and while some of her dear friends have crossed over the Rainbow Bridge, she will always stand by her belief that animals make the world a better place.

She loves to hear from her readers and blogs regularly.

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