Happy Hollow Stables Series Books 1-3: Happy Hollow Cozy Mystery Series

By Eve Craig

All the books in this compilation are clean Cozy Mystery short stories that do not contain any foul language, sexual situations, witches, or paranormal events.

Book One  - Dying To Win
Holly Bridges had always dreamed of having her own stable. While out for a drive in the country, she found a farm with a large indoor arena and several outdoor arenas.  Even though it looked like it hadn't been used in years, it was the perfect location for holding equestrian shows and stabling horses.

Shortly after opening, Holly managed to acquire a prominent local's horse as her first boarder.  With the new tenant it looked like Happy Hollow Stable's first equestrian show could be a huge draw for the locals. Well, that is until a dead body showed up in a nearby field.

Will the show go on or will Holly have to give up her lifelong dream?

Book Two - Kill Them With Kindness
While celebrating the windfall of her very expensive Hanoverian gelding, Rufus, the old barn cat, showed up sick.  When Holly realized that she hadn't chosen a vet for any of the animals, her assistant suggested that try the local Veterinarian in Hill City.

After seeing the vet, Rufus wasn't getting any better, so Holly made a follow up appointment to have him checked out again.  Shortly after their arrival at the vet's office she found the doctor dead.

Did the Veterinarian die of natural causes or could it have been murder?

Book Three - Old Dog New Tricks

Holly was just getting settled in at Happy Hollow Stables when she found herself being adopted by a German shepherd that showed up looking for food.  

Since the dog arrived without a collar or any type of identification, she took him to the local vet to help search for his owner.  The vet checked him for a microchip, but couldn't find anything.  Since she was unable to locate his owner, Holly decided Happy Hollow Stables could be his new home away from home until his owner could be found.

Soon after the dog got familiar with his new surroundings, Holly discovered he seemed to have yet another secret.  How will she find out what it is?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cozy Mystery Press
• Release date: Dec 9, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386207696

Book preview

HAPPY HOLLOW STABLES SERIES BOOKS 1-3

HAPPY HOLLOW STABLES SERIES BOOKS 1-3

Happy Hollow Cozy Mystery Series

Eve Craig

Cozy Mystery Press.com

© Copyright 2017 by Eve Craig All rights reserved

This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and locations portrayed in this book and the names herein are fictitious. Any similarity to or identification with the locations, names, characters or history of any person, product or entity is entirely coincidental and unintentional.

From a Declaration of Principles jointly adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

No responsibility or liability is assumed by the Publisher for any injury, damage or financial loss sustained to persons or property from the use of this information, personal or otherwise, either directly or indirectly. While every effort has been made to ensure reliability and accuracy of the information within, all liability, negligence or otherwise, from any use, misuse or abuse of the operation of any methods, strategies, instructions or ideas contained in the material herein, is the sole responsibility of the reader.

Any copyrights not held by publisher are owned by their respective authors.

All information is generalized, presented for informational purposes only and presented as is without warranty or guarantee of any kind.

All trademarks and brands referred to in this book are for illustrative purposes only, are the property of their respective owners and not affiliated with this publication in any way. Any trademarks are being used without permission, and the publication of the trademark is not authorized by, associated with or sponsored by the trademark owner.

---

HAPPY HOLLOW STABLES SERIES

BOOKS 1-3

First Printing December 2017

Published by:

Cozy Mystery Press

http://www.CozyMysteryPress.com

Printed in the United States of America

Also by Eve Craig

For a list of all Eve’s books please visit her website at:

http://www.EveCraig,com/p/book-list.html

---

HAPPY HOLLOW

COZY MYSTERY SERIES

DYING TO WIN

KILL THEM WITH KINDNESS

CART BEFORE THE HORSE

OLD DOG NEW TRICKS

SILENCE OF SNOWFALL

A HOUSE DIVIDED

FIRST GLANCE PHOTOGRAPHY

COZY MYSTERY SERIES

PRETTY AS A PICTURE

HOT OFF THE PRESS

PICTURE OF THE PAST

POINT AND SHOOT

WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

COST OF DOING BUSINESS

CEDAR RANCH

COZY MYSTERY SERIES

APRIL 2018

---

MOPPING UP A MURDER

To get Eve Craig's latest releases at the lowest price sign up for her newsletter:

http://www.EveCraig.com/p/newsletter.html

Contents

Dying To Win

Kill Them With Kindness

Old Dog New Tricks

Also by Eve Craig

About the Author

Dying To Win

Happy Hollow Stables Cozy Mystery Series Book One

Full Page Image

Chapter One

Holly Bridges jumped out of her truck and eagerly loped around it to shake hands with the real estate agent. Thanks for meeting me on such short notice.

The realtor, Mrs. Hudgins, nodded her curly gray head and smiled. It’s no problem. I was just surprised to have someone interested in this place. She fiddled with a set of keys as they approached the big barn door.

Really? As she had come up the long driveway to the stable, Holly had already been impressed with the place. All the pastures were lined with beautiful white fencing. The barn had an attached indoor arena as well as several outdoor arenas. Whoever had originally built the place had put some money into it.

Oh, yes. Mrs. Hudgins put the key in the lock, tried to turn it, and then grabbed a different key when it didn’t work. A big place like this isn’t the kind of thing that just anybody goes for. You are serious about renting it, aren’t you? She glanced over her shoulder at Holly.

Absolutely! It had always been a dream to start a stable of her own. She’d been in several horse shows as a child and then had gone on to compete on her university’s equestrian team. Though she had thought her riding career had been over upon graduation, she quickly found that she wasn’t going to be able to stay away from the sport forever.

Mrs. Hudgins managed to get the rusty lock working and shoved open the big door. Groping in the darkness, she found the light switch and then wiped her hand off on her skirt suit. This building has thirty stalls and an indoor arena. She flipped another switch.

Lights came on down a long center aisle way. The stalls on the left were covered in dusty cobwebs, and several of them still had old bits of deteriorating tack hanging from the hooks on the doors. The dirt floor of the arena was nothing but mud in a few spots where rain had leaked in. The gate that lead to it hung limply on its hinges.

The owner would like to offer complete control of the space in exchange for the rental fee. That means that you don’t have to ask to make any changes to the property. He simply doesn’t want to have to deal with it anymore.

Holly’s mind was already churning with ideas. The stable was going to take a lot of work; there was no debate about that. She would have to spend all her evenings and weekends scrubbing, dusting, repainting, and repairing. Between the normal daily operations of a stable and fixing the place up, she would be constantly busy. She couldn’t wait.

Mrs. Hudgins’ sensible shoes made soft thuds on the concrete floor of the aisle as they strolled past the stalls. As I’m sure you noticed, there are quite a few pastures and paddocks available for your use. Everything inside the fences comes with the place. The rest of the surrounding real estate is farmland.

Holly nodded. So, no real neighbors. Nice. There would be no loud trucks or barking dogs to disturb the peace and the horses.

The agent tipped her head to the side. Well…Mr. Gibson is on his land quite often. He does keep his tractors in an equipment shed on the land, and if he’s not tilling and planting then he’s tinkering.

I think I can handle that.

They had reached a tack room at the end of the aisle. At some point, someone had converted it into an office. The dusty desk was nothing more than a plank of wood balanced on two stacks of cinder blocks, and the accompanying chair didn’t look safe enough to sit in. But there were a few outlets in the walls, and the floor was wood instead of dirt.

I think this is going to work out just—What is that? Holly took several steps backwards as a hairy lump rose out of the shadows in the far corner of the makeshift office. Deep, growling yowls emanated from its throat as it shook off the straw that clung to its fur.

Mrs. Hudgins laughed. Oh, that’s just Rufus. He’s been living here for as long as anyone can remember. I should tell you about that part of the contract. If you rent the place, you have to agree to let Rufus stay.

The shaggy creature advanced towards them, and Holly could now tell that he was a scraggly old barn cat. Bits of straw and dirt still clung to the ends of his long gray fur. His pale green eyes seemed permanently set in a scowl, and his crooked whiskers only added to the look. He sat down on the floor in front of the two ladies, watching them with such an intensity that Holly thought perhaps even he was waiting for her final answer.

She grinned at the hideous feline. Of course, he can stay.

Chapter Two

I think organizing a show is going to be one of the best ways to attract attention to the place, Holly explained to her new employee. It’s going to take a lot of work, but I think it will be worth it. Have you ever helped put on a horse show before?

McKenzie Allman grinned from the other side of the hay room, where she was filling several large plastic trash cans with bags of grain. I think it’s a great idea! I don’t know anything about it, really, but I’m sure we can pull it off. As a local college student, she had lots of energy and enthusiasm. That was one of the main reasons Holly hired her.

The two women made their way back to the office, which Holly had worked hard to fix up as soon as she had signed the rental agreement. She needed a base of operations, not to mention a place to sit down and rest while she fixed everything else. She pulled a bottle of water out of a cooler and handed it to McKenzie before grabbing one for herself. Soon enough, she would find room somewhere for a fridge.

I can order the ribbons online and have them delivered. We’ll have to make our own jumps for the hunter class. I’ll need to find some judges, too.

McKenzie ran a hand over her dark brown ponytail to get it off her neck and took a big swig of water. I saw some scrap lumber over by the backside of the barn. That might be a good start for our jumps. Do we want to have any kind of concession?

"That’s a great idea! Of course, we would need someone to run the