Venison Stew

The Jim and Em mystery series of stories starts with a young farmer, Jim, and his girlfriend, Em, in Northeastern Minnesota farm and timber country during the late 1930's. It is written as the rural equivalent of the classic pulp mystery -- the farmland's answer to Agatha Christie's Miss Marple and Dashiell Hammett's Nick Charles.

The series starts when three of Jim's neighbors die under questionable circumstances. The couple is on a date having their usual soft drinks at the local drugstore. Jim wants to find out what happened to his neighbors and Em doesn't want to be left behind. In their usual competitive way, they decide to bet on the investigation. The first to solve the mystery gets to decide on what food the other must bring for a picnic meal -- a real 'Murder Picnic.'

Jim and Em find that they are good at solving mysteries and soon eat their way through dating, proposal, marriage and life together. The young couple become well known in the county for their mystery solving abilities with a foreseeable result that they get involved in a new dangerous and mixed up mystery -- a real 'Venison Stew'…

I hope you enjoy the latest Jim and Em mystery and life in Depression era rural America.