Murder at the Adobe Thrift Shop: A Cozy Mystery (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798299054392)

In his will, a community-minded man left his vacant desert grocery store building and five dusty acres to a local church with the condition that they be used to "benefit the community." The church, in turn, allowed community groups to use the building for meetings, educational, and recreational activities. Ultimately, the high cost of building maintenance, air conditioning in the hot summer months, and heating during the cold desert winters made the gift a luxury the church could not afford. The church leaders asked their members to find ways to use the building in a self-sustaining manner that would serve the desert community. It was agreed to start a volunteer-run thrift shop. Sales would cover building maintenance and operations, and profits would help meet the needs of impoverished community members. Church and community volunteers transformed the building into a profitable, operational thrift shop, and ultimately, it served needy children and adults very well.

The male volunteers managed to restore the ruins of a historic adobe building on the lot; they initially suggested that profits from the thrift shop would fund their project, mistakenly believing the shop could stay open longer and that the women volunteers would be willing to work extra hours. This led to gender-stereotypical conflicts among volunteers and unwelcome "mansplaining." The women volunteers, who operated the thrift shop without any interest or participation from male volunteers, created a vibrant social environment at the thrift shop: listening to lounge-music standards, dressing whimsically, and adopting nicknames from vintage TV shows. The women worked together to solve puzzling thefts of valuable items from the shop, and they ultimately solved the murder of a homeless person, whose body was found at the thrift shop.

Author: Gayle Noble
ISBN-13: 9798299054392
Publisher: Independently Published
Language: English
Published: 08/24/2025
Pages: 150
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.46lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.32d