State Fair (Benni Harper Series #14) Book

It's been a while since I read a Benni Harper/Ortiz mystery but the characters are all there: Benni, Chief of Police Ortiz and his grown son Sam, Benni's Gramma Dove, Blind Harry's Book Store and all the rest. It is time for the County Fair (not State as stated in the title) and the whole agricultural community is involved as well as the craft community and the quilters who exhibit in the museum of which Benni is the manager. The new fair manager is a member of the Black community and there are those who are not happy at his appointment. The Ebony Sisters, a black quilting group, have replicated a well known story quilt and are exhibiting it along with a collection of black cloth dolls. There are all the tensions of a two week fair, misunderstandings, mistakes, and jealousies.
Dove's sister Garnet is on a visit from Arkansas and Benni is told off to escort her around the fair to keep her out of Dove's way. The sisters do not get along well, never have. While touring the Family Farms exhibit Benni and Garnet discover a body in one of the exhibits. The body is wrapped in the Ebony Sisters' quilt and there is a suspicion that the death is a racially motivated action aimed at discrediting the new fair manager. Much of the discussion in the book centres around racial concerns and the feelings of minority people who may be feared as well as distrusted by those around them. It is, of course, particularly appropriate considering events in the US currently.
The plot is good, hints are there if you are trying to solve the murder, and there is plenty of humour as well as realistic descriptions of small town life. The fair is just about perfect with the only thing left out being Those Little Doughnuts. We don't seem to have quite as much deep fried food as they do but otherwise it's the same fair you went to wherever you lived.