Sixty-something Southerner MacLaren Yarbrough keeps busy as a county magistrate, a co-owner of Yarbrough’s Feed, Seed and Nursery, and a loving wife and mother.  But her penchant for snooping around in other people’s business often lands her up to her neck in murder…

In Hopemore, Georgia, good ol’ boy Skye MacDonald lives life large––as a dedicated family man, back-slapping civic leader, and flamboyantly successful owner of a local automobile empire.  Very little happens in this cozy town without Skye’s full knowledge and participation.  So the whole community is shocked when his body is found in a muddy road, run over by his own car.

Judge MacLaren Yarbrough and her husband, Joe Riddley, have known the MacDonalds for years.  So they can’t help but get involved in this baffling murder investigation, especially when it produces more questions than answers: Why has Skye’s son skipped town?  How many secrets was Skye keeping?  And…

Who Left That Body in the Rain?

“Who Left That Body in the Rain? charms, mystifies, and delights. As Southern as Sunday fried chicken and sweet tea. Patricia Sprinkle’s Hopemore is as captivating—and as filled with big hearts and big heartaches—as Jan Karon’s Mitford. Come for one visit and you’ll always return.”—Carolyn Hart

“Ms. Sprinkle has created an heirloom quilt. Each piece of patchwork is unique and with its own history, yet they are deftly stitched together with threads of family love and loyalty, simmering passion, deception and wickedness, but always with optimism embued with down-home Southern traditions. A novel to be savored while sitting on a creaky swing on the front porch, a pitcher of lemonade nearby, a dog slumbering in the sunlight.”—Joan Hess

“Authentic and convincing. This series is a winner.”—Tamar Myers