Maple Grove Gazette - October 24, 2026

Maple Grove's Only Newspaper of Record—Vol. 1 No. 28—Edited by Mr. Ellison, Town Archivist & Historian

FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK

The warm weather has held another week. The mornings are cool, the afternoons reach the high sixties, and there has still been no hard frost. Most of the leaves are down. The rakes are out on every street, and the piles do not last long, because every child in the village has been told not to jump in them.

None of this is what the village is talking about. Since Tuesday morning, the village has been talking about Gordon.

The particulars are set down in the Police Blotter, where they belong. In brief: a two-year-old went into Main Street, Gordon went in after her, and two vehicles met in the middle of the street at a speed this editor is assured was within the posted limit. No one was hurt. A great many people cried, not all of them under the age of five.

At the diner, the question is whether Gordon stepped off the curb or lunged. Those who were there say he stepped. Those who were not there say he lunged, and the distance has been increasing.

Gordon has declined to discuss the matter. Asked by this editor for a statement, he said he had been on his way to get coffee. He has since been bought eleven cups of coffee. He drinks one a day. The remainder have been accepted, with thanks, by Belle.

📜 POLICE BLOTTER

MAPLE GROVE POLICE DEPARTMENT—INCIDENT REPORT
Reporting Officer: Officer Sanchez Week of: October 17-23

Main Street, in Front of Brewed Awakenings—Two-Vehicle Collision. Reported by Officer Wilson. At approximately 10:20 a.m. Tuesday, the Mommy and Me group was leaving Brewed Awakenings when two-year-old Rosie Harper let go of the hand of her mother, Emily Harper, and ran into the street. Gordon, of Gordon's Hardware, was approaching on the sidewalk with Belle, of Belle's Antique Shop, for their mid-morning coffee. He went off the curb, took hold of Rosie, and put her back on the sidewalk. Witnesses agree it took less time than it takes to describe.

A southbound car driven by a young woman of the village was approaching at the time. She states that she heard screaming, did not know where it was coming from, and turned the wheel to the left. Her car crossed the center line and struck, head-on, a northbound pickup truck driven by Police Chief Carter. Both vehicles were traveling at or under 25 miles per hour. There were no injuries. Damage to the front of both vehicles. Officer Wilson notes that the Chief bought the truck the previous Tuesday.

As a party to the collision, Chief Carter did not take the report. Officer Wilson's report states that the Chief "looked at the front of the truck for some time."

Mr. Dan Harper, the village's insurance agent, a high school classmate of the Chief's, and Rosie's father, came out of his office down the block when he heard the commotion. Once his family was settled and he had heard the whole account, he informed Chief Carter that he would personally cover the damage to the truck. The Chief then instructed the responding officer that the driver, who had stated several times that she would never drive again, should be released with a warning.

Mrs. Harper, the driver, the children of the Mommy and Me group, and a number of bystanders were in tears at the scene. Jenna McGregor of Brewed Awakenings brought out tissues for the adults and cookies for the children. Officer Wilson reports that this was effective in both groups.

Before the vehicles were moved, Lisa, also of Brewed Awakenings, smudged the scene of the collision and, with the Chief's permission, the Chief's truck. The Chief also permitted her to place crystals along the curb and one on the dashboard of the truck. It is still there. Final Disposition: Collision report filed. Driver given a verbal warning. Rosie Harper returned to her mother unharmed. Damage to Chief Carter's truck to be paid by Mr. Harper. This editor is not certain that is how insurance works. Mr. Harper has assured this editor that, on this occasion, it is.

Mildred, who saw the whole thing from the café window, has described Gordon's movement as "a clean extraction." Asked where she learned the term, she said she must have read it somewhere. This editor has checked the library's holdings. It is possible.

📋 COMMUNITY NOTICES

Main Street Speed Limit—25 miles per hour, at all times. Police Chief Carter reminds motorists that the limit on Main Street is 25 miles per hour, and that it is a limit, not a target. He asks drivers to watch the sidewalks as well as the road, and asks parents to keep hold of small hands near the curb. Until his truck is repaired, the Chief will be driving the department's spare cruiser. He asks that residents not remark on it.

Gordon's Hardware—Regular hours. Gordon reports that foot traffic in the store is up sharply this week and sales are not. Most visitors come in, shake his hand, and leave. Gordon asks that anyone who wishes to thank him buy a box of leaf bags on the way out, as he has a great many of them.

Trick-or-Treat—Saturday, October 31, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Main Street and the village neighborhoods. Porch lights on at participating homes. Motorists are asked to drive as though every child on the block is about to step into the street, because several of them will.

Fall Farmers Market—Saturday, October 31, 9:00 a.m. to noon, the town square. The last market of the season. Tomatoes remain available, against all expectation.

🏛️ HISTORICAL NOTE

On the morning of June 14, 1923, a dairy wagon belonging to Mr. Elmer Hale came up Main Street without Mr. Hale on it. The team, a pair of bays, had been left standing outside the creamery and had decided, in Mr. Hale's absence, to go home.

Mr. Lyle Pettibone, the barber, was shaving a customer at the time. He went out the shop door with the razor still in his hand, took the near horse by the bridle, and brought the team to a stop in front of the bank. The Gazette ran the story on the front page under the heading "Barber Halts Team." The customer is reported to have waited in the chair, half shaved, throughout.

The following week, the Gazette printed a letter from Mr. Hale. He thanked Mr. Pettibone for his trouble. He wished it known, however, that the horses had been going home, that they knew the way perfectly well, that they had done it before, and that they would have arrived without incident had they not been stopped in front of the bank and made to stand in the sun while a crowd gathered. He considered the team to have been delayed.

Mr. Pettibone did not respond in print. He went on cutting Mr. Hale's hair for another nineteen years.

This editor notes only that in this village, a rescue has always been followed within the week by a second opinion. This editor has heard several already. This editor offers the record without further comment.

🔍 Fellow Sleuths Worth Following

Candlesticks and Corpses by B.J. Cade

B.J. Cade was here in July with a dog parade. She's back with a haunted house.

The charity haunt at Wexler House is full of fake bodies, until the owner turns up as a real one. Willa Honeycutt was only there to drop off cookies. Then her Aunt Syl spots someone in a ghostly bride costume before the haunt even opens, and finds a note on her windshield telling her to stop talking about what she saw. Aunt Syl does not stop talking about what she saw. If you have an aunt like that, you already know how this goes.

The newest Willa Honeycutt, out October 18. Nearly every reviewer names the War Council, Aunt Syl and her two partners in eavesdropping, as the reason to read it. $0.99, or free in Kindle Unlimited.

See the full spotlight →

Grab it on Amazon →

FREE READS—OCTOBER TITLES

One more week of October, and one more week to raid the free shelf.

Browse October’s Free Books →‍

🍽️ THE MAIN COURSE

Next Saturday is Halloween. That's the week Parade of Peril happens.

It opens with Jenna finding a man she went to school with, standing in a field, posed like a scarecrow. He was a bully when they were kids. The second body turns up on a parade float, parked behind her own café.

Something happened in Maple Grove twenty years ago. Everybody Jenna grew up with remembers it, and nobody remembers it the same way. Jenna keeps asking which version is true. Joe would like her to stop asking. Joe, as you may have read above, has had a week.

If you want to read it the same week it happens, start this weekend.

It's in Kindle Unlimited →

Book 1, Scones, Secrets & Sabotage, is free →

✍️ Behind the Scenes

Still no frost. Last week I told you the tomatoes were getting one more week on the vine. They took it. There are about a dozen still hanging on out there, plus a handful of jalapeños that also didn't get the memo.

Most of the leaves are down now, so the grandkids have been over raking them into big piles and then jumping in the piles. Then raking them up again. Then jumping again. I can't say the yard is any cleaner. I'm counting it as yard work anyway.

See you next Saturday, fellow sleuths—same town, new trouble.

— Willow 🌿

Meet Willow

Author, School Board member, and gluten-free baker. I write the Jenna McGregor mysteries from my home in Michigan, fueled by coffee and Peloton PRs.

Want to stay in the know? Get the Weekly Gazette

Maple Grove Gazette - October 17, 2026

Maple Grove's Only Newspaper of Record—Vol. 1 No. 27—Edited by Mr. Ellison, Town Archivist & Historian

FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK

It is harvest in the township, and harvest in the township is also deer season, whatever the calendar says. The combines are in the fields from first light until well after dark, and everything that spent the summer living in those fields is leaving them, generally by way of the road. The village has responded as it does every October. It drives slower. It watches the ditches. On the county roads at dusk, it brakes for mailboxes, stumps, and anything brown.

The caution is warranted. The Maple Grove Police Department took two deer reports this week, which is two more than the week before. In the first, the vehicle was parked and the deer got in. In the second, the vehicle was moving, the deer was moving, and only one of them stopped. Both are recorded in the proper section.

At the diner, the morning talk has turned to tracks, rubs, and the size of things seen at a distance in poor light. This editor has been told about a great many deer this week. Every one of them was large. Several were described as "the biggest one I've ever seen," on occasion by the same man.

There has still been no hard frost. The mums have now been covered and uncovered every night for three weeks, and the forecast calls for another week of mild days. The village is happy to hold on to these last few days of warmth and sunshine.

📜 POLICE BLOTTER

MAPLE GROVE POLICE DEPARTMENT—INCIDENT REPORT
Reporting Officer: Officer Markle Week of: October 10-16

County Road, West of the Village—Deer in a Parked Vehicle. Reported by Officer Wilson. At approximately 4:30 p.m. Saturday, two of the Hutchins boys, ages sixteen and seventeen, parked their pickup on the shoulder beside a woodlot and walked in to scout for deer. They report finding a great many tracks, several small trees with the bark rubbed off, and no deer. On returning to the truck, they found a large buck standing in the bed. Officer Wilson's report notes that the buck saw the boys before the boys saw the buck. The animal startled, drove its antlers through the rear window of the cab, jumped out over the side, and left across the field to the north at speed. Neither boy was injured. Both counted the points while the buck was in the truck. They have not since agreed on the number. Final Disposition: Deer/vehicle report filed. Truck towed to a local garage for a new rear window. The boys now know where the deer are. They regard the afternoon as a success.

County Road, East of the Village—Deer/Vehicle Collision. Reported by Chief Carter. At approximately 7:05 p.m. Wednesday, Charlene reported that her car had been damaged by a deer. Chief Carter took the call himself. Asked why, he said his officers had had a long week. Charlene stated that several does crossed the road in front of her, followed closely by a large buck that was paying no attention to the road, and that she clipped the buck's hind quarter. Damage: right headlight and part of the grille. The buck left the scene. Charlene asked that the buck be charged with destruction of property. Chief Carter informed her that if she could locate and identify the buck responsible, he would be glad to hear from her. A search of the scene found no buck. Final Disposition: Deer/vehicle report filed. Charges pending identification of the suspect.

This editor is told that Charlene has since described the incident at the post office, the diner, and the Farmers Market, and to anyone else who would stand still. In the course of the week the buck has, by her account, gained four points and about a hundred pounds. It is the time of year when every buck in the township grows a little in the retelling. This editor draws no conclusions.

📋 COMMUNITY NOTICES

Deer on the Roads—Dawn and dusk, through November. Police Chief Carter reminds residents that the harvest is moving deer out of the fields and across the roads, and that where there is one deer there is generally another behind it. Slow down. Do not swerve. Report any collision. He also asks residents who strike a deer not to attempt to identify it.

Deer Whistles—Gordon's Hardware. Gordon reports that he sold out of deer whistles on Thursday, which he cannot remember happening before, and that more are on order. Gordon makes no claim as to whether they work. He notes that the frost cloth, which he is fairly sure does work, is still on the shelf in all three sizes.

Fall Farmers Market—Saturdays through October, 9:00 a.m. to noon, the town square. Two Saturdays remain. Apples, cider, squash, and the last of the tomatoes, which have no business still being here.

🏛️ HISTORICAL NOTE

On the evening of November 9, 1931, Mr. Orville Greaves of the feed store was driving his Model A home along the county road when a buck came out of the ditch and struck the car. The Gazette reported the damage as one headlamp and one fender, and the deer as "departed."

Mr. Greaves did not let the matter rest. At the next meeting of the Village Council he presented a petition asking that the animal be declared a public nuisance and that the village recover from it the cost of repairs, which came to three dollars and forty cents. The minutes record that the petition was received and referred to the committee on streets.

The committee on streets met once on the question. Its report to the full Council, which this editor has read in the bound volume, is two sentences long. It states that the committee was unable to proceed "pending location of the respondent," and recommends that the matter be tabled. It was tabled.

It has never been taken off the table. In 1962 a councilman moved to take it up again, and was asked whether the respondent had been located. It had not. The petition of Orville Greaves therefore remains, technically, before the Village Council, ninety-five years on.

This editor notes only that Chief Carter's advice to a resident this week, that she let him know when she has found and identified the buck, is the position the village government has held since 1931. This editor offers the record without further comment.

🔍 Fellow Sleuths Worth Following

Death, Heists and Hat People by Bessie Barr

Bessie Barr was here last month with church ladies in 1900. This time she's on a Texas beach.

A flock of glamorous international visitors lands on Pelican Shores to model a local woman's new hat line. They ask a lot more about old paintings, jewelry, and island estates than about hats. Then the island's estate dealer turns up dead. If you've ever watched a tourist ask one question too many, Finn Dockrey and her dog, Beau, are already watching them.

New in the Pelican Shores series, out October 9. $0.99, or free in Kindle Unlimited.

See the full spotlight →
Grab it on Amazon →

FREE READS—OCTOBER TITLES

The county roads are no place to be at dusk this month. The free shelf is.

Browse October’s Free Books →‍

🍽️ THE MAIN COURSE

This is the week the combines go into the fields, and everything that's been living in those fields all summer comes out the other side. Mostly deer. Ask Charlene.

In Parade of Peril, what Jenna finds standing in a field is a man she went to school with, posed like a scarecrow. He was a bully when they were kids. That's the first body.

The second one is on a parade float, parked behind her own café.

It's Halloween week in Maple Grove. Everybody Jenna grew up with remembers something that happened here twenty years ago, and nobody remembers it the same way. Jenna keeps asking. Joe would very much like her to stop asking.

It's Book 4. It's set two weeks from right now. If you're going to read it this October, this is the week to start.

It's in Kindle Unlimited →

Book 1, Scones, Secrets & Sabotage, is free →

✍️ Behind the Scenes

We still haven't had a hard frost. I have heirloom tomatoes in pots on the deck that are still ripening, in the middle of October, which is frankly none of their business. The deck runs warmer than the yard, and the forecast says high sixties for another week, so they're getting one more week on the vine. After that, I pick whatever's left and call it a season.

Peanut has officially taken over the house. Peanut and our dog Xena are full-time playmates now. Charlie is tolerating her from across the room, and has forgiven me enough this week to allow a few snuggles. I'm counting that as progress.

This weekend we had the whole family over for dinner, fourteen of us, with my mom and my aunt in town. The pets have never had so many laps to choose from, and they worked every one of them.

The sun is out. The cardinals are singing. Life is good.

See you next Saturday, fellow sleuths—same town, new trouble.

— Willow 🌿

Meet Willow

Author, School Board member, and gluten-free baker. I write the Jenna McGregor mysteries from my home in Michigan, fueled by coffee and Peloton PRs.

Want to stay in the know? Get the Weekly Gazette

Maple Grove Gazette - October 10, 2026

Maple Grove's Only Newspaper of Record—Vol. 1 No. 26—Edited by Mr. Ellison, Town Archivist & Historian

FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK

The maples turned this week. They turned all at once, as they do every October, and this newspaper reports it every October as though it had never happened before. Red on the town square. Orange down the length of Park Avenue. A yellow on some streets so strong that on a gray morning the street appears to be lit from underneath. A town named for its maples is entitled to make a fuss about them once a year, and this editor intends to.

By Wednesday the leaves were coming down, and the village divided, as it does every fall, into three parties: those who rake, those who blow, and those who run the mower over the whole business and call it mulch. Each party regards the other two as a failure of character. The blowers say the rakers are living in the past. The rakers say the blowers are moving the leaves into the neighbor's yard and calling it finished. The mulchers say nothing, because they were done by ten o'clock Saturday and went inside. This editor rakes. He declines to say more.

The Farmers Market on the square was, on Saturday, very nearly all apples. McIntosh, Cortland, Honeycrisp, and a few early bushels of the Northern Spy, which the older residents of the township will tell you is the only pie apple and which the younger residents have stopped arguing about. Mrs. McGregor's apple pies were gone by twenty past nine. Several ladies who arrived at half past were told the time. They already knew it.

For most of its history, Maple Grove's October smelled of burning leaves. Officially, it has not smelled of them since 1971. Unofficially, it did for about forty minutes on Tuesday afternoon, in one back yard, and the particulars are recorded in the proper section.

📜 POLICE BLOTTER

MAPLE GROVE POLICE DEPARTMENT—INCIDENT REPORT
Reporting Officer: Officer Wilson Week of: October 3-9

A Residential Back Yard—Reported Structure Fire. Reported by Officer Markle. At approximately 4:40 p.m. Tuesday, a motorist reported heavy smoke rising from behind a house and stated that the house was on fire. The Maple Grove Volunteer Fire Department responded with one engine and six volunteers, Officer Markle assisting. The house was not on fire. The smoke came from a pile of leaves in the back yard, roughly four feet high, which the resident, Charlene, had set alight. She was standing beside it with a rake, and informed the responders that the fire was under control. The pile was extinguished by hose line. The resident declined to step away from the pile and was, in the course of the operation, extinguished as well. She was not on fire. The department notes that it had no way of being sure. The force of the water distributed the pile evenly across the yard, the back porch, and the resident. Officer Markle reports that when the operation concluded, she was wet through and covered from head to foot in partly burned maple leaves. A child passing on a bicycle stopped to ask what she was going to be for Halloween. Final Disposition: Citation issued under the village open-burning ordinance. Fire out. Leaves to be re-raked, wet. The resident asks that it be recorded that the fire department did not need to use the whole hose. This editor has agreed not to print the street, which the entire village already knows.

Park Avenue—Reported Theft of a Rake. Reported by Officer Wilson. At approximately 10:00 a.m. Saturday, a resident reported that her rake had been taken from her front yard while she stepped inside for coffee. Officer Wilson located the rake at the bottom of the leaf pile, where it had been raked by the resident's husband, who had come outside to help. Final Disposition: Rake recovered. Husband thanked, and asked to go back inside.

📋 COMMUNITY NOTICES

Open Burning—Prohibited within the village limits. Village ordinance has forbidden the burning of leaves, brush, and yard waste inside the village since 1971. Police Chief Carter notes that the Maple Grove Volunteer Fire Department has now been called out twice in two weeks for smoke that turned out not to be a house fire, and that every one of its volunteers left a supper table to answer the call. He asks residents to think of the suppers.

Leaf Collection—Mondays, through the end of November. The village crew will collect leaves raked to the curb. To the curb, not into the street, where they wash down the storm grates. The storm grates on Main are cleared on Saturday mornings by the community service crew, who have asked, through Officer Sanchez, that this be mentioned.

Fall Farmers Market—Saturdays through October, 9:00 a.m. to noon, the town square. Apples by the bushel and the peck, cider by the gallon, and squash in quantities that suggest somebody overplanted. The pumpkin weigh-in remains scheduled for later this month. The growers have stopped discussing it altogether, which this editor is told is a good sign.

🏛️ HISTORICAL NOTE

The Village Council passed the open-burning ordinance in September of 1971, after an autumn in which the smoke over Main Street was thick enough that this newspaper described that year's Homecoming parade as "heard more than seen." The ordinance was introduced by Councilman Dale Hutchins, who spoke in its favor at two meetings and is recorded in the minutes as saying that the village "has the right to breathe."

The ordinance took effect on October 1, 1971. The first citation under it was issued on October 1, 1971, at 6:30 in the evening, to Councilman Hutchins, who was found in his back yard with a rake and a burning pile. He told the officer that he had understood the ordinance to take effect at midnight. The officer showed him the ordinance, which said October 1, and pointed out that it was October 1. The Councilman paid the fine, which was two dollars, and the following spring voted to raise it to five.

There have been fifty-four Octobers since. In forty-nine of them, the Gazette has recorded at least one leaf fire inside the village limits. In every one where the paper recorded what the resident said, the resident said it was under control. This editor offers the record without further comment.

🔍 Fellow Sleuths Worth Following

A Deadly Nightmare by L.B. Dayton

L.B. Dayton was here last month with her chef. This time it's her painter.

A Halloween show at Sadie Stewart's Chicago gallery, a painting nobody hung that shows Sadie herself in a field of bloody thorns, and a phantom with rules. If you like your October cozy to end at a masked ball, with a Doberman who never leaves her side, Sadie's gallery is open late.

Book 7 in the Sadie Stewart series. $2.99, or free in Kindle Unlimited.

See the full spotlight →
Grab it on Amazon →

FREE READS—OCTOBER TITLES

We're halfway through October and the free shelf is still stocked. Rake first. Read after.

Browse October’s Free Books →‍

🍽️ THE MAIN COURSE

Last week the Homecoming crown went back into the trophy case at Maple Grove High. Everybody in town knows that trophy case. It's been bolted to the wall for decades.

Which is why it was a problem when sixteen-year-old Jenna McGregor bumped into it, and the next morning it had moved.

That's Ghosts Don't Use Blueprints, the prequel. Teenage Jenna. Lisa, already sure she sees what other people don't. Joe Carter, years before he was Chief, back when he was a football player. Dan Harper and his bulldog, Winston. The teachers say nothing changed. The janitor says nothing changed. Then a championship trophy disappears, and there are seams in the walls nobody wants to talk about.

It's the one with the secret passages. It's the right October read if you like your spooky with a flashlight and a best friend. And if you've never been to Maple Grove, it's where all of it started.

It's in Kindle Unlimited →

Book 1, Scones, Secrets & Sabotage, is free →

✍️ Behind the Scenes

Last week I said I'd be out in the yard until the frost told me to stop. The frost still hasn't said anything, so I'm still out there. Every time I finish a section, the maples drop another layer on it. For the record, I rake. I do not burn. Charlene and I are not the same.

Inside, it's apple season, which in our house means everything is apple. Applesauce. Gluten-free apple crisp. Apples in things that did not ask for apples. We're easing into the cozier food too: soup, chili, the first pot of something that simmers all afternoon and makes the house smell like October.

See you next Saturday, fellow sleuths—same town, new trouble.

— Willow 🌿

Meet Willow

Author, School Board member, and gluten-free baker. I write the Jenna McGregor mysteries from my home in Michigan, fueled by coffee and Peloton PRs.

Want to stay in the know? Get the Weekly Gazette

Maple Grove Gazette - October 3, 2026

Maple Grove's Only Newspaper of Record—Vol. 1 No. 25—Edited by Mr. Ellison, Town Archivist & Historian

FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK

The nights have turned cold enough to talk about and not yet cold enough to matter. The low forties, most mornings, and no frost. The township has spent the week waiting for it the way it waits for a verdict, with the mums covered every evening and uncovered every morning, and a general sense that whatever happens next will be somebody else's fault.

On Thursday it was the first of October. By seven that evening a good many chimneys in the village were smoking, though the thermometer outside this office read fifty-four degrees. This editor asked several residents why they had lit a fire. Every one of them gave the same answer, which was that it was October. One of these fires produced more smoke indoors than out, and is recorded in the proper section.

It was also Homecoming Week at Maple Grove High. Last week this newspaper reported on Homecoming at the college, which takes place on the college's property and is none of the village's business. The high school's Homecoming is entirely the village's business, and the community conducted it in full: a spirit day every day, a pep assembly in the gym, a parade down Main on Friday afternoon, the game on Friday night, and the dance tonight. Wednesday was Twin Day. Officer Markle reports that his own twins, who are twenty-one months old and have dressed alike every day of their lives without being asked, did not see what the fuss was about.

The Homecoming court was elected by the student body on Monday. Readers will recall that seven young men ran the length of the home bleachers at the previous Friday's game in their underwear and the school colors, and that they are now serving community service on Main Street on Saturday mornings. One of those seven young men was elected to the Homecoming court. This editor is unable to say whether the students voted for him in spite of the halftime or because of it. The young man will not be named here, at his grandmother's request.

The school took the position that the court belongs to the students. His parents took the position that the parade and the game were acceptable and that the dance was a separate question. On Friday afternoon he rode down Main Street on the back of a convertible at four miles an hour, waving, while the children along the curb scrambled for the candy thrown by the driver. On Saturday mornings for the next four weeks at eight a.m. he will be back on the same street with a broom, under the supervision of Officer Sanchez, keeping the streets, parks, and sidewalks clean. His mother has ruled that he may attend the dance if the curbs are clean. This editor intends to be on Main Street at eight, and expects company.

The Bulldogs won the game by a comfortable margin, which this newspaper reports as a matter of record and not of news. The halftime is described below. The Homecoming queen was crowned at midfield with the same crown every Maple Grove queen has worn since 1952. The crown is described below as well. It has earned it.

📜 POLICE BLOTTER

MAPLE GROVE POLICE DEPARTMENT—INCIDENT REPORT
Reporting Officer: Officer Markle Week of: September 26–October 2

Maple Grove High School Athletic Field—Halftime, Homecoming Game. Reported by Officer Markle. At the request of the band director, Mr. Robinson, four officers were posted for the halftime period: two at the gate behind the concession stand, one at each end of the track, and Chief Carter in the home bleachers. The band performed its halftime show in full, from the first note to the last, on the field, without interruption. Mr. Robinson stated afterward that it had been "a while." Final Disposition: Nothing happened. Officer Markle asks that it be recorded.

Birch Lane—Smoke in a Residence. Reported by Officer Wilson. At approximately 7:15 p.m. Thursday, a resident reported heavy smoke inside the home shortly after lighting the first fire of the season. Officer Wilson responded with the Maple Grove Volunteer Fire Department and found the fireplace damper closed. The outdoor temperature at the time was fifty-four degrees. Asked why the fire had been lit, the resident said, "It's October." Final Disposition: Damper opened. Windows opened. Resident advised that it is not yet cold enough to need a fire, and was not cold enough at the time.

📋 COMMUNITY NOTICES

Homecoming Dance—Saturday, 7:00 to 10:00 p.m., high school gymnasium. The dress code will be enforced. The administration has added the words "at all times" to it this year and wishes it known that the change was not made for any particular reason.

Community Service Crew—Saturdays, 8:00 a.m., Main Street. This Saturday's assignment is the parade route. Officer Sanchez will supervise. Chief Carter repeats his request that residents not take photographs, and notes that a request is all it is.

Frost Protection—Gordon's Hardware. Gordon reports that he has frost cloth in stock, in three sizes, and that so far this fall the village has bought none of it. The village is covering its mums with bedsheets, as its mothers did. Gordon asks this editor to add that the frost cloth will still be there when the bedsheets blow into the road.

🏛️ HISTORICAL NOTE

The crown placed on the Homecoming queen's head at midfield on Friday night was ordered from a catalog in the fall of 1952 for four dollars and ten cents. This newspaper reported the purchase at the time and described the crown as "suitable."

It has been worn by every Maple Grove queen since. In that time it has been repaired five times, and each repair is in the bound volumes. In 1961 one of its points was soldered back on by the shop teacher. In 1974 a second point was replaced entirely by the shop class, and does not quite match. In 1988 eleven of its stones were glued back in after the crown was dropped on the gym floor during the dance. In 1997 it was straightened. In 2003 it was sat on, by whom the Gazette did not report, and was straightened again.

On three occasions the same crown has been worn by a mother and later her daughter. On one occasion it has been worn by a grandmother, her daughter, and her granddaughter. All three were in attendance on Friday night. The grandmother is reported to have said that it looks smaller than she remembers.

The crown has outlasted the gymnasium it was first worn in, the scoreboard, two sets of bleachers, and the catalog company. It is kept in the trophy case outside the principal's office between Homecomings. This editor has examined it there. It is not a fine object. It has never been asked to be one. This editor offers the record without further comment.

🔍 Fellow Sleuths Worth Following

Murder at the Harbor Bake-Off by Nora Brinkley

The first annual Harbor Bake-Off, a celebrated baker dead in the prep kitchen, and a piping bag that isn't hers. The whole town says heart attack. Bailey the labradoodle disagrees. If you've ever trusted a dog's read on a room over the crowd's, Greystone Harbor is your kind of town.

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FREE READS—OCTOBER TITLES

October's free shelf is up. It's the right month for a body in the cornfield and a blanket you have no intention of folding.

Browse October’s Free Books →‍

🍽️ THE MAIN COURSE

Every October, someone in a small town decides that what the town really needs is a fresh start. In Maple Grove, that someone showed up with glowing vegetables and linen robes.

That's Harvest of Shadows and Dark Brews. The Grove Collective moves in on the edge of town. Their leader, Eliad, is calm. Too calm. And Lisa, who has never once in her life been calm, falls for all of it. Within a week she's traded her wardrobe for linen and is talking about auras at the café counter.

Jenna would like to be supportive. Then a college student overdoses on a tonic that leads straight back to The Grove, and supportive is off the table.

So it's Jenna, Mildred, Joe, and one old Jeep, going places none of them should go, to get her best friend back.

It's Book 3. It's the most October thing I've written. And Biscuit's Biscuits are in the back, if your dog has been good this harvest season.

It's in Kindle Unlimited →

Book 1, Scones, Secrets & Sabotage, is free →

✍️ Behind the Scenes

Last week I told you I was done with the yard and would be admiring the deck from inside. The yard didn't get the memo. Every sunny afternoon this week I've been back out there with the borders, the planters, and the deck, and I've accepted that this goes on until the frost tells me to stop.

One of my granddaughters turned ten this week. Double digits. I'm not sure how that's allowed, since I was holding her as a baby about five minutes ago.

And Peanut, the kitten who turned up in the brush west of the house last month, is no longer a guest. She's family. She's eating well, growing fast, and pouncing on anything that moves, including Charlie, who is handling it with more grace than I expected.

See you next Saturday, fellow sleuths—same town, new trouble.

— Willow 🌿

Meet Willow

Author, School Board member, and gluten-free baker. I write the Jenna McGregor mysteries from my home in Michigan, fueled by coffee and Peloton PRs.

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