"The Cart Before the Corpse" by Carolyn McSparren, is a murder mystery spin-off of the Mossy Creek Hometown Novels. Mossy Creek Hometown series are books of anthologies by different authors set in Mossy Creek, Georgia. It's a Southern rural hometown that claims "it ain't going nowhere, and don't want to." Populated by colorful local as well as retired out-of-town folk, the characters are all a bit flawed, and truly southern.
McSparren love horses, carriages and mystery, not necessarily in that order and combined all three in "The Cart Before the Corpse." Southern carriage-horse trainer Hiram Lackland, a handsome widower, dies mysteriously after retiring to a farm outside Mossy Creek. His estranged daughter, Merry Abbott, also a horse trainer, arrives to settle his estate. Peggy Caldwell, Hiram's landlord and friend, who happens to be a mystery-novel buff, claims he was murdered.
This fast paced, action-packed mystery is filled with odds and ends of the horse carriage world. If you don't know what that is, you will have a good understanding after reading this. The only thing missing was the fresh scent of horse `apples'. This was the first Mossy Creek story I've read and it covers all you need to know. Even though this is the first of the series, it is complete in itself. This was a good, enjoyable read.