Bitter Harvest

Orchard Mystery #5

by Sheila Connolly

Now that Meg Corey's apples have been harvested and sold, she's enjoying some free time. But when the small but annoying mishaps plaguing her start turning sinister, Meg begins to worry that her first harvest may be her last.

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Cozy, Fiction, Audiobook, Adult, Mystery Thriller

301 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 2, 2011

About the author

Sheila Connolly taught art history, structured and marketed municipal bonds for major cities, worked as a staff member on two statewide political campaigns, and served as a fundraiser for several non-profit organizations. She also managed her own consulting company providing genealogical research services.

She was a member of Sisters in Crime-New England (president 2011), the national Sisters in Crime, and the fabulous on-line SinC chapter, the Guppies. She also belonged to Romance Writers of America and Mystery Writers of America.

Sheila was Regent of her local DAR chapter, and a member of the Society of Mayflower Descendants. She was also the grandchild of Irish immigrants. In addition to genealogy, Sheila loved restoring old houses, visiting cemeteries, and traveling.

Reviews

[Natalia R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not my favourite in the series but still very enjoyable! highly recommend it to anyone who loves Genealogy.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Five books down and the sleepy little town of Granford, Massachusetts was starting to look like Detroit (the murder capital of the United States). Thankfully Book Five departs from all the murder and manages to steer the mystery in a different direction.

With her first harvest behind her, Meg starts to notice that things are going wrong. On their own they don't seem like much but when taken together, Meg begins to suspect someone is targeting her. She needs to find out who is out to get her, and more importantly why.


Bitter Harvest is probably the book in this series I have enjoyed the most. It's the most subtle and nuanced book to date and definitely one for fans of cozy mysteries.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 Stars rounded up to 3 Stars.
As a prior senior financial analyst for a Fortune 500 company, I find it unbelievable that this character Meg could have been clueless as to her financial standing at the end of the harvest. She was stated as having an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and an undergraduate degree from Brown, plus had years of financial analysis experience with a major bank in Boston. There is just no way she wouldn't have started her business without some sort of computerized spreadsheet program tracking expenses and income accounts receivable/payable, not with the education and experience Meg had. This unplausible scenario just does not sit well with my understanding of this character and giving a big plot hole in her intellectual profile.

[Obsidian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have finally finished all of the "An Orchard Mystery" novels to date and found myself not pleased with this novel or the next one, "Sour Apples".

Readers please ensure that you read the series in order to make sure you don't go into the series completely cold. This newest novel features protagonist Meg finishing up her first harvest of the orchard. "Bitter Harvest" has our main protagonist Meg Corey putting her first harvest behind her. Meg though is staring to wonder about whether she has what it takes to make her orchard profitable as well as if her relationship with Seth Chapin is actually what she needs at this point in her life. Meg is also dealing with a series of mishaps around her home and is starting to wonder if they are truly accidents, or is someone out to get her.

I ended up rating this novel just two stars because the character of Meg has just become exhausting now. Meg's dwindling charm as a character and the fact that this novel has no murder mystery but instead has Meg solving the mystery behind a decades long family massacre does not help matters either. Finally, it really was the too far out there ending that was honestly not deserved that I could not get behind. Had a lot of trepidation about reading "Sour Apples" and after finishing that novel may have to skip "Golden Malicious."

Up until this point in the series I really liked Meg. She seemed a bit quirky and had a definite chip on her shoulder and at times just got on my nerves but I honestly liked her. However, in this novel she got on my nerves with none of her prior charm that made me like her and also just made no sense at all. Meg starts waffling on her life and her relationship with Seth and I was sick of it. Frankly, I don't even understand why she had any angst about Seth. As it is I am starting to feel as if that character is too good for her.

Meg's relationship with Bree is also getting tiresome. Meg's constant griping to Bree to do the books to see if the orchard made a profit made no sense to me. Is that not something that should be done the entire time? I was so confused by that. Also Bree and Meg both have the exact same personality so there was no relief from one or both of them being in a mood.

Also Meg's inability to just take time away from her business to do the bar minimum of fixing up for her home is also getting tiresome. Yes we get it Meg, it costs a lot to fix up your house. However, you have the ability to get money through her last adventure so her crying poor is just not cutting it anymore.

Although there was not a typical murder mystery for Meg to solve, she does take time out to 'solve' the death of a family that her family was related to peripherally. The ending in my opinion was quite lackluster along with the resolution to Meg determining who is behind her accidents.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good, however I wish the author would have tied up a few more loose ends in the conclusion. I will continue with this series.

[Hilary (A Wytch's Book Review) · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is Winter and the harvest is over, Meg, Seth and Bree should be able to relax but things are going wrong - just small things at first, the goats get out, a window doesn't shut etc.  Then a blizzard is forecast and Meg's furnace packs in! Seth will be able to fix it - but they need to get through the weather first and still niggling things are happening.  Maybe the item that Meg discovers in a closet can help solve all the problems.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the 5th book in Sheila Connolly's Orchard Mystery series. Meg and Bree are finished with the apple harvest, and can have some down time before getting ready for the next year's season. Only strange little acts of vandalism begin happening. At the same time Meg finds a 200 year old embroidered sampler in the back of a closet. She cannot figure out why it is in her house because the sampler was done by someone not related to the Warren family who built the house and whose ancestors have lived in it for 200 years. In doing the genealogy of the sampler's stitcher she learns how she connects to the Warren family, and she also learns of a genetic disease that is still present today in descendants.

The author raises awareness about Battan's Disease, a genetic disease that always ends up with affected children dying. I have cared for several children with this, it is a devastating disease.

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really am enjoying this series and this was a good winter read. Although it mentions Christmas a few times it is not a Christmas story, but it is still a good mystery. The character development has been great so far. I like keeping the sames group and just weaving a few new faces in and out, here and there.

[Brooke · Rating 2 out of 5]

So far this is my least favorite in the series. No murder and lacking action. Hopefully Sour Apples will end the series in a positive light.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meg has harvested and sold her apple crop. Has she made a profit? Will she keep the orchard going another year? As she and Bree look at the books, she's got some decisions to make. Does she keep the farm another year? Is her relationship with Seth something she wants to pursue?

At the same time, she does some housecleaning, and finds an old sampler. Interested she begins to do research. It looks like the house on the sampler might be hers.

Then odd things start to happen around the house. Are these accidents? Just bad luck? And then, there's the blizzard. So much going on.

There is a lot going on in this book, and Sheila Connolly brings them all together in the end. Besides the decision to be made about keeping the orchard going (or not), there's her relationship with Seth. Then, there's the sampler and the genealogical research that goes into figuring out who made it and what it means. And of course, all the 'accidents' that keep happening. Needless to say, one could get lost in all this, but it all congealed nicely. If you want so say there's a bad person involved, I did figure out who, but not necessarily why.

This series continues to delight.

[☼♎ Carmen the Bootyshaker Temptress ☼♎ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harvest is complete and Meg is finding it hard to stay still and enjoy the free time. Especially now that she’s been caught in a major snow storm but not too bad since Seth was staying with her and roughing it out with no electricity and heat. But of course things don’t stay quiet. Meg and Seth find a very old sampler while cleaning the rooms in the house then sinister things start to happen, someone peeking in the window and Meg getting locked in the barn and other small things.
I have enjoyed this series right from the beginning. All the original characters and new ones that pop up. Can’t wait to continue this series and Meg’s adventures, this thing with Seth and of course the orchards.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

For once, Meg isn't dealing with some body, but she's certainly dealing with someBODY! A series of small mishaps appear unrelated, but Meg adds 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1, and it adds up to way beyond coincidence! Someone is out to get her...but who? And WHY? As Meg tried to figure out who might possibly have it in for her, she also begins to unravel the mystery behind a 200+ year old sampler found shoved in the back of a closet. And in the end, both mysteries are stitched together in a most unusual way!

[Kellene · Rating 3 out of 5]

A different chapter in the continuing story of Meg Corey, I enjoyed this book. The genealogy tie in was very interesting to me, as was the solution to the mysterious sampler. There was at least one point during which I wanted to slap the fire out of Meg, but thankfully she finally got over herself in this book. I have waffled back and forth about continuing this series, but I definitely foresee another Orchard Mystery in my future reading.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a mystery without a current murder. Instead there was a historical murder & several other deaths as Meg tries to solve the mystery of a sampler found in her home that depicts several family deaths & leads her to dig into her genealogy. A severe snowstorm triggers multiple incidents of harassment that Meg also has to solve so that she can sleep at night. Good thing apple harvest is over & she has some spare time on her hands!

[Crazy for Books (Stephanie) · Rating 3 out of 5]

@49%... So, I've liked most of these books in the series, although I've had a few questions of how the characters are fleshing out.

On this one, I'm getting bored with full chapters on Meg's delving into Violet and her past. I just want the rest of the story to flush out instead of all the internal musings about Violet and what happened to her.

[Michelle Mulvaney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am really enjoying this series. Just like any good recipe, you have different ingredients. With a mix of fiction, historical fiction and non-fiction, Shelia Connelly creates the perfect recipe with this series.

[Trish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good. I did figure out what was going on pretty early.

[Julie P · Rating 4 out of 5]

When is a mystery not a murder mystery? When no murder takes place. Sheila Connolly's latest outing with orchard farmer Meg Corey is a mystery without a murder, and that's no bad thing. Winter is downtime for an apple orchard farmer, a time to take stock of your stock, of your life, and to catch up on paperwork that was held until the harvest was in. A blizzard, power outage, and a dead furnace leave Meg and her handyman cum love interest Seth Chapin plenty of time to take stock of Meg's colonial farmhouse. During their inspection of one of the front bedrooms they discover an antique sampler shoved in the back corner of a closet lying there undiscovered for well over 100 years. This discovery coupled with a series of odd, almost vindictive events forces Meg to try and figure out the sampler's origins and meaning, as well as uncover who is causing problems around the farm. Once you have suspended disbelief that no one would have found this sampler in the many years of people occupying the house, you'll find the book that much more enjoyable. More genealogy mystery than murder mystery, this cozy is best read in the middle of summer because Connolly so fully evokes the winter weather that I found myself shivering as I read - and it's August!

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

With the first Apple harvest over at
Meg Corey’s orchard in Granford,
Massachusetts, she will have to decide
whether it is her last!! While waiting for books
to be tallied, a huge snowstorm hits the area.
Meg’s furnace dies then the electricity goes
off so Meg, Seth Chapin( the next-door neighbor
and Briona Stewart (her orchard manager and
housemate live life old fashion style....fireplace
for warmth and light.
Meg and Seth discover a sampler all crumpled
up in the corner closet. It was signed by Violet
Cox and dated 1798. Violet was twelve when
she sewed the sampler. Meg starts to investigate
how this is related to her family.
Very informative regarding samplers and
genealogy that held my attention.
Meanwhile someone is targeting Meg to add to
the mystery.
Loved the antics of Dorcas and Isabel, the goats
plus Lilly, Meg’s cat and Max, Seth’s golden retriever
add to the story.
This is book # 5 in the Orchard Mystery series. It
can be read as a stand alone.

[Nancy H · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this installment of the Orchard Mystery series featuring Meg Corey, Meg finds herself in the middle of a blizzard, with a broken furnace, and a mysterious stalker who is slowly affecting Meg with a series of disturbing incidents, including trying to pry open a window at her house, wrecking her fence, running into her car in a hit-and-run, and much more. When the incidents get more serious, including shooting through her kitchen window when Meg and Seth are inside, Meg decides that she has had enough, and sets out to trap the intruder. The identity and motivation of that person are definitely surprising!

[❂ Murder by Death · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had a very different plot, centred around deciphering a found embroidered sampler. It was interesting, although way too much internal dialogue for me - I found myself skimming more than a couple of times. But the characters have become increasingly more likeable with each book and I'll definitely read the next in the series.

[Kaye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just the thing for a warm summer evening..Meg and Seth are caught in a snowstorm in Meg's old farmhouse.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

No death in this, but an interesting background story for this series. Cant wait to start on the next installment.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is not as suspenseful as some of the other books in this series, but seemed more about Meg's homelife and various relationships. I enjoyed it, but I can imagine other readers wanting more of a mystery.

Because it didn't have as many cliffhangers, I read it in bits and pieces. So I didn't notice the trend with the misfortunes.

I did, however, know whodunit, because this person was the only one who could. I did not, however ... SPOILER ... know who the second culprit was. I don't think we were given enough information to know in advance.

I was impressed that Seth is kind to everyone, not just the girl he's interested in. That's a refreshing change of pace from romances where kindness is only related to physical attraction. This makes it more of a character trait.

I was also impressed that the book showed Meg's disappointment with her success. That's reminiscent of the book of Ecclesiastes, where the author searches for meaning and purpose in various pursuits, finding many of them empty. It's a deeper theme than I would've imagined in this mystery.

The author was a professional genealogist, which shows between the last book, which included a search for a letter, and this book, which involved research into a sewing sampler.

However, for a genealogist, the book was misleading about recessive genes. There's only a 1/4 chance that a recessive trait will be exhibited if neither parent exhibits it. If A is the dominant trait, and a is the recessive trait, there are 4 possibilities.

AA - both parents give dominant genes and the dominant gene is expressed.
Aa- one parent gives a dominant gene, and the other gives a recessive gene. The dominant is expressed.
aA - one parent gives a dominant gene, and the other gives a recessive gene. The dominant is expressed. This only differs from the prior one in which parent gave which gene.
aa - both parents give a recessive gene, and the recessive gene is expressed.

Favorite quotes:
"I'm not sure what you want me to say. It sounds like this is something you have to work through in your own head."
"And here I was looking for a father confessor and kindly counsellor."
"Were you? Meg, what do you want from me? If you want advice, I'll give you advice."

I recently asked a similar question in different words to an unexpected someone who wanted me to read a book together. I don't mind reading books, but I wanted to know why me, and what the purposes were for the conversations surrounding it, what they hoped to get out of it. The person was offended that I'd asked. It seemed like a reasonable question to me, and it seemed reasonable to this author, or at least to her character Seth.

"Was that really all it took? Saying I'm sorry? ... she hadn't had a lot of practice. Not that she believed she was never wrong, but she'd seldom tried to explain or defend herself. Maybe she'd always hope that the people who cared about her knew what her true intentions were and forgave her automatically. Or maybe that was the mother of all rationalizations and she was just too insecure t say the words. Well, she'd changed a lot in her life; she could change this, too.

[Jennifer Robb · Rating 3 out of 5]

A friend (AC) gifted me with several titles from this series.

I enjoyed learning some genealogy research tactics in this book's mystery--though I rarely find that answers come as readily in real life as they seemed to in this book. For me, it seems more searching and more dead ends than what Meg came up against in this book.

I agree with another reviewer's genetic breakdown in that both genes being recessive is 1 of 4 options. The (arguably limited) research I did on Batten Disease says it is "usually autosomal recessive" which makes me wonder if there is a form of it that expresses itself when one parent passes along a dominant gene and it may depend on which parent's dominant gene the child gets. It does seem unlikely (but not impossible) that every child in 2 families got both recessive genes from their parents.

I am not sure what the contract between Bree and Meg specifies--it's their first year working together and Meg didn't know the ins and outs of running an orchard--so it's not entirely unfeasible that she didn't have a plan to track expenses and income on a regular basis (plus having some times of being very busy with the harvest). Perhaps now that she realizes Bree isn't so organized with that aspect, they will divide the duties differently in the coming year--with Meg keeping the books on a more regular basis and Bree turning in receipts in a more timely manner etc.

I thought Meg had pretty much decided to give the orchard a couple years try out so her indecision when she gets the final numbers from Bree was a bit confusing.

I'm glad Seth is kind to most people (not just those he has a romantic interest in). I'm not quite sure I understand Meg's reluctance. And if she's truly not sure about their relationship, why is she sleeping with him?

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meg has harvested and sold her first apple crop. It’s been a long year and she is enjoying her time off while her farm manager is finishing the accounting to determine if they have made a profit. When a winter storm hits Meg’s furnace dies and the power goes out. Luckily her close friend Seth is able to open the fireplace flue and help her get a fire going. He also helps her begin cleaning many of the unused rooms in her house. While wiping out a corner on a high closet shelf Meg comes across a silk and lined sampler that appears to have been hidden away for a hundred years. She is puzzled not to recommend any of the names on the sampler despite having been found in her family home. As the winter storm hits Meg also finds herself experiencing what could be called a bout of bad luck. Things take a turn when Meg finds herself locked in the unheated barn overnight. Without any idea of who or why anyone could be angry with her.
I loved this book. I will say that my enjoyment of this series has not been consistent. I have enjoyed each book, but not each book is as good as a couple have been. This book combined my interest in genealogy and mystery. I also liked that the author was able to write a great cozy mystery without another murder in a small town. The characters in this book are well-developed. When new characters are introduced you immediately have a sense of who they are and perhaps, why. The setting is great. I love old farms and this book (series) plays right into that. This book could definitely stand alone, but over all this series is worth reading. I look forward to reading book 6.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part of my March Madness 2022 readathon to work on my enormous physical TBR pile, which is nearly as tall as I am.

Our protagonist Meg Corey is snowed in her Colonial-era home during a blizzard and to keep herself occupied (and warm, as her ancient furnace went on permanent vacation due to a cracked firebox), she is cleaning unused rooms. In a dark corner of a bedroom closet, she finds a needlework sampler dated to 1798 and is a bit unusual due to the mourning imagery being used in it. The creator, a 12 year old girl, stitched tombstones into a family register sampler (usually, urns and weeping willow trees are used in mourning samplers).

#5 in the series (I'm on a waitlist at the library for #4) and so far this is my favorite entry in the Orchard series. The mystery for this book is a bit different, as it spans through two hundred+ years in the Granford family trees. The sampler Meg found is the key to solving the mystery, while she and her orchard manager Bree (quick-tempered and with a chip on her shoulder, but I've come to adore Bree) are having issues with pranks that are escalating to incidents with potential harm.

The genealogy woven into the Orchard series is a big plus for me, as are the descriptions of running an orchard and restoring a 250+ year old home. I also stitch needlework, so having an antique sampler featured in the book was a really nice bonus. There is a sketch of the sampler in the book and I'm itching to recreate it.

[Sherry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Orchard Mystery # 5
Meg’s first Apple Harvest is finally over and she’s waiting for Bree, her young Orchard Manager, to get all the accounting done to know if they finished in the Black. Meg is continuing the family genealogy her mother had begun. Then a record breaking blizzard hits, the same day Meg’s Ancient furnace dies. She refuses to leave the house, so Seth and his pup Mac move into the frigid house to help keep a fire going and cope together. Exploring and cleaning to exercise and get warm, Meg discovers an old rag wadded up at the back of a high attic shelf that turns out to be a 200 hundred year old Family Register and Funerary sampler wrought by Violet Cox, a 12 year old girl, the only mourner over the graves of four children who died young, their father and her mother a few days after the last child’s death. Violet has stitched each of their gravestones, names and birth and death dates onto the linen found in Meg’s house. Meg dives into genealogy to figure out how and why it ended up in her house. Meanwhile someone is playing uncomfortable and increasingly dangerous and threatening tricks on Meg and Bree.

[Karen Pilon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Easy enough read, this was number 5 in a 12 part series called The Orchard Mysteries. Simple story but I found myself doing far more comparisons than normal. These books are set virtually in my backyard. Mentions of the towns of Amherst, Ludlow, Hadley, South Hadley, Holyoke, Northampton, even Springfield makes me think the fictional town of Granfield is based on Granby. If you believe the book, Granfield is a hick town in the middle of nowhere and all these other towns are hours away. They’re not. Fine, it’s a work of fiction but don’t use I-91 and Old Sturbridge Village as references if the only fictional name is the name of the main town. Main character Meg is a former financial officer turned apple farmer yet relies on a girl with her first job to handle the financial paperwork? The whole story is just too far fetched for me. I won’t be diving into the rest of the series. Not to mention, the author has a character saying that her relatives go back 6-8 generations where the main character’s relatives go all the way back to the 1600’s. Ummm, 6-8 generations IS the 1600’s.

[Kait Carson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been a fan of this series from the start. I enjoy the rural setting and find the characters both likable and realistic.

Bitter Harvest is a true mystery, not a murder mystery. In this book, Meg is threatened by events. Small happenings that taken together are chilling but apart smack of coincidences. Worse, there is no obvious villain, unless you count the western Massachusetts winter. The subplot concerns an antique sampler stitched by a 12-year old ancestor of Meg's that tells a heartbreaking tale of death. On a stormy night, all of these elements come together leaving Meg, Seth, and Bree to resolve them.

This is a wonderful read in which we get to know the nuances of Meg's and Seth's relationship and glimpse behind the curtain into the whys of their behavior.

It takes a writer as skilled as Connolly to weave these threads together and solve this mystery while leaving us at least one tantalizing clue that will need to be resolved in the future by Meg and Seth.