Theft, extortion, homicide — there’s no end to the talents of the new men in photographer Sonny Littlefield’s life. Ever since she moved to the strawberry and sheep farm that she inherited from her biological father, her problems have been piling up: her cousins keep robbing her house, she’s rapidly going broke, and she hasn’t had a date in months. Her top priority is figuring out who left a skeleton hand and threatening note in her ramshackle barn.

Somebody in Gracious, Maine, is turning human remains into playthings, and it’s all Sonny can do to keep from ending up a pile of bones herself as her search for answers shoots her straight to the top of a killer’s target list.

Kiss Your Strawberries Goodbye is a thriller mystery novel set in the serene confines of Gracious, a quaint town nestled in Maine, New England, USA where a murder has never occurred on its peaceful streets.

Sonny Littlefield has inherited a strawberry and sheep farm from her late father, Raymond. Unfortunately, Raymond didn’t tell his current family about Sonny which has made them quite upset that an outsider had inherited the farm and they have made Sonny feel very unwelcome.

The arrival of a family friend and farm hand, Brumby, brings an unsettling turn of events when an intruder is seen in the barn. The intruder gets away, but not before leaving a skeleton hand and a note that states ‘You didn’t ask the right questions’.

Kiss Your Strawberries Goodbye is an intriguing murder mystery novel. The character of Sonny, or Alison – the name switches, is quite young, naïve, and somewhat vexing. It took some time to get to like her. The pace felt a little disjointed. From super fast at the beginning, to then going sluggish before picking up again. This ebbing and flowing disrupted the natural rhythm of the story and as such it took me a long time to get into it.

The plot is unique and the location is fabulous. I love the Western feel of the setting and the small-town life. The author keeps the reader guessing for most of the way through and then surprises them with the outcome. For me through, this was a book that took me too long to get interested in and didn’t excite me as much as I thought it would from the synopsis. Shame as I really expected to love it.

People have described Nina DeGraff’s writing as funny, suspenseful, and very real. During her travels to jungles, coral reefs, and other destinations in search of adventure, Nina’s practical side endeavors to maintain control. The rest of her is a plucky photographer with a ridiculous amount of optimism, and a fascination for the unknown. It seemed natural to wrap her unique real-life experiences into a mystery series.

Her Sonny Littlefield novels are based on the years she and her husband raised sheep and horses on a small organic farm in rural Maine. In writing the series, she draws heavily on her own brushes with disaster, moments when she pressed her luck too far, even the time she brought a tip to the police and ended up helping them solve a crime.

Nina loves photographing animals and scenes that she can use in her art. At the same time, she pays close attention to atmospheric details that enable her to bring a sense of realism to her writing.

Her nature audio tracks are available through most major streaming services. One of her albums gives readers a chance to experience wild Maine for themselves: “Nature Sounds, Maine & Florida,” features a track of a loon call on a Maine lake, a wild pond at dusk, and birds that were recorded in locations very close to where the Sonny Littlefield Mystery series takes place.