BISCUITS, BLACKMAIL, & A BODY INTHE BAYOU: Picnic & Peculiar Mysteries 2

Someone choked—and it wasn’t on the biscuits.

After solving the murder that shook Ivy Ridge in Murder on the Magnolia Quilt, John Ivy thought things might quiet down.

But when another body turns up—and this time, in the bayou—he realizes God isn’t finished using him yet.

What begins as a cheerful charity picnic along the bayou’s edge turns deadly when a powerful Ivy Ridge resident collapses mid-speech—tumbling off the dock and into murky water below. At first, the crowd calls it a tragic accident. Heat. Age. Bad timing.

John Ivy knows better.

He’s seen the signs before, and this death smells like blackmail gone sideways.

As whispers ripple through Ivy Ridge Estates, John uncovers a trail of secrets stretching back decades—oil money disguised as generosity, political favors wrapped in church language, and donations that came with dangerous strings attached. The victim didn’t just drown in bayou water.

He drowned in what he knew.

With the community on edge and reputations at stake, John must untangle who was being threatened, who was being paid off, and who decided silence was worth killing for.

Armed with sharp instincts, dry humor, and a faith that won’t let him look away, John proves once again that retirement doesn’t stop justice—it just gives it time to simmer.

Because at Ivy Ridge Estates, the biscuits are warm, the smiles are polite, and the bayou keeps what people try to bury.

From Danyelle Scroggins comes another cozy, clever, and spiritually grounded mystery in the Picnic & Peculiar Mysteries series—where secrets surface, sinners sweat, and truth always finds its way to the light.

Pull up a chair. Pass the biscuits. And don’t turn your back on the water.