by Sandra Murphy
& Sherry Harris

This week we have a review of the latest Garage Sale Mystery by Sherry Harris, and a fun guest post by Sherry with garage sale tips! Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win a copy of Sell Low, Sweet Harriet. We also have a link to purchase it from Amazon and an indie bookstore.

Sell Low, Sweet Harriet: A Garage Sale Mystery by Sherry Harris
Review by Sandra Murphy

Sarah Winston has a new policy when dealing with her garage sale clients. She vets her sellers. After learning the hard way, not everyone is honest in their dealings, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Her newest client is Jeanette Blevins. She and her brother, Troy, inherited after their parents were killed in an accident in Africa. Since the family had traveled extensively and collected art and more, this will be an estate sale rather than a garage sale. Jeanette’s brother lives out of town so she has the responsibility of handling the estate. The biggest surprise is that Jeanette’s parents were both CIA agents.

Of course, nothing goes according to plan. A man claiming to be Troy shows up, Sarah has to hire two helpers – one is helpful but asks a lot of questions, the other works well alone but is just the opposite, very quiet – an alarm is installed but a hidden camera is found. Sarah is determined to finish the sale. Is there something of greater value in the house, or is all the intrigue due to the CIA connection?

In addition, a young woman has been killed on the nearby Air Force base. Until her divorce, Sarah was at the base often. Now she volunteers part-time at the resale shop but has lost many of her connections as people are transferred. Still, she feels a kinship to the dead woman. Military spouses are supposed to help their husband’s careers while giving up their own. When the husband is arrested, Sarah believes he could be innocent.

With the sale, the murder, her business, and her own love life’s progress, Sarah has more than enough to contend with. As tensions build, she has to wonder—will she survive it all?

Sarah is a complex character, learning to make her way after her divorce. Her life until then had centered around her husband’s career and her volunteer work. Many businesses won’t hire military spouses, knowing they’ll lose an employee when the spouse is transferred. She’s involved with a man who loves her, but she’s hesitant to commit. She’s expanding her business, has good friends, and a nose for solving mysteries. She’s someone you’d count on if you got in a bind.

This is the eighth book in the series. Readers can start with this book but will want to go back to the beginning to see how it all began. At the back of the book, find tips on holding a winter garage sale and an excerpt of Let’s Fake a Deal, book seven.

Also be on the lookout for From Beer to Eternity the first in Harris’ new mystery, the Chloe Jackson Sea Glass Saloon series, from Kensington. It releases on July 28, 2020.

Sandra Murphy lives in the shadow of the Arch in St. Louis Missouri. A Murder of Crows, edited by Sandra Murphy (a popular title so you need her name to search), has twenty-one cozy stories. Each features the collective name of an animal and a crime. The animals range from tarantulas, koalas, wolves, bears, jellyfish, toads, cats, dogs, alpaca, goats, penguins and more. No animals were harmed. The people weren’t so lucky. Available at the usual outlets, print or ebook.

Garage Sale Tips
by Sherry Harris

Did your New Year’s resolution include decluttering? Getting rid of things can be hard, but garage sales can be a great way to do just that. If it’s the dead of winter at your house or even if you live in a more temperate climate, January is an excellent month for sorting through everything that’s stuck in the back of your closet, tucked under the rafters in the attic, or gathering dust on a shelf in the basement. In my Sarah Winston Garage Sale mysteries, Sarah is an expert garage sale organizer and here are some of her tips:

Tagged for Death
1. Always have a helper at the sale because sadly, even at garage sales people will shoplift.
2. Keep the money you use for the sale on your person in a pocket, fanny pack (they are back in style!), or in a purse slung across your body.

Sherry Harris

The Longest Yard Sale
1. Use tags that will stick to the item you are selling, but won’t damage it.
2. Use different colored stickers to show the price and then a board that shows blue is five dollars, yellow is one dollar, etc.

All Murders Final!
1. Schedule your sale near paydays when people have more money to spend.
2. Most people have garage sales on Saturday mornings, but think of other times there might be events in your neighborhood. For example, there are often open houses on Sunday afternoons that might bring more people to your neighborhood.

A Good Day to Buy
1. Use sites like eBay to help you price items.
2. You can mark “price firm” on one or two items, but most people who go to garage sales love to bargain. (Some get angry when they can’t bargain!)

I Know What You Bid Last Summer
1. Lots of people sell food at their garage sales, but make sure you are following regulations set up by your town or county.
2. Think about what the weather will be like. If it’s really hot, selling something that could melt—like chocolate—can be messy.

The Gun Also Rises
1. If you are selling lots of books, it’s easier to price them so that all hardbacks are one price, trade paperbacks another, and mass market paperbacks are the cheapest.
2. If you have a lot of books be prepared to lump them together as a package deal—especially near the end of the sale.

Let’s Fake a Deal
1. Try to make things look nice, but don’t go over the top with decorating—it’s a waste of time.
2. Make sure your items are clean and stain free.

Sell Low, Sweet Harriet
1. You can throw a garage sale in the winter even in a cold climate, but don’t do it in your house unless you have a room with a separate entrance and someone to watch the door with access to the rest of your house.
2. Get together with neighbors and rent a community space in the winter. People who love garage sales will be happy to find one!

And if throwing a garage sale seems like too much work, take your unwanted items to your nearest thrift shop – it’s a win-win!

To enter to win a copy of Sell Low, Sweet Harriet, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “harriet,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen January 25, 2020 U.S. residents only and you must be 18 or older to enter. If entering via email please include your mailing address-we will delete the emails when the contest is over. You can read our privacy statement here if you like. We delete all emails after the contest is over.

Check out other mystery articles, reviews, book giveaways & mystery short stories in our mystery section. And join our mystery Facebook group to keep up with everything mystery we post, and have a chance at some extra giveaways. Be sure to check out our new mystery podcast too with mystery short stories, and first chapters read by local actors. A new episode went up this week!

Click on this link to purchase this book & a portion goes to help support KRL & an indie bookstore Mysterious Galaxy:

Sell Low, Sweet Harriet (A Sarah W. Garage Sale Mystery #8)

You can use this link to purchase the book on Amazon. If you have ad blocker on you may not see the link:

Sherry Harris is the Agatha Award nominated author of the Sarah Winston Garage Sale mystery series and upcoming Chloe Jackson Sea Glass Saloon mystery series. She is the immediate past president of Sisters in Crime, and is a member of Mystery Writers of America, and International Thriller Writers. In her spare time Sherry loves reading and is a patent holding inventor. Sherry, her husband, and guard dog Lily are living in northern Virginia until they figure out where they want to move to next. Website: Sherryharrisauthor.com Blog: Wickedcozyauthors.com, Twitter: @SHarrisAuthor, Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SherryHarrisauthor,
Instagram: SherryHarrisAuthor

Disclosure: This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which we receive a few cents if you make purchases. KRL also receives free copies of most of the books that it reviews, that are provided in exchange for an honest review of the book.