title: The Blackwoods Farm Enquiry (An Ivy Beasley Mystery)
author:  Ann Purser 
description: <b>Praise for the Ivy Beasley Mysteries</b><br /><br />[Ivy] combines Jane Marples intelligence with Joan Riverss acerbity.<b></b><i>Richmond Times-Dispatch</i><br /><br />Ivy Beasley is a truly unique characterA delightful, eccentric old darling.Fresh Fiction<br /><br />[A] delightful English cozyIvy is Miss Marple and Jessica Fletcher rolled into one, with a little more spice than sugar. Debbies Book Bag
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  ## 2\. Preliminary Exercises
  
  She did her chores that morning and got out of the house with the book as fast
  as she could, heading for one of her secret places in the woods. _If weird
  things start happening_ , she thought, _no one will see them there. Oh, I 'm
  going to get that pen back! And then_ . . .
  
  Behind the high school around the corner from Nita's house was a large tract
  of undeveloped woodland, the usual Long Island combination of scrub oak, white
  pine, and sassafras. Nita detoured around the school, pausing to scramble over
  a couple of chain-link fences. There was a path on the other side; after a few
  minutes she turned off it to pick her way carefully through low underbrush and
  among fallen logs and tree stumps. Then there was a solid wall of clumped
  sassafras and twining wild blackberry bushes. It looked totally impassable,
  and the blackberries threatened Nita with their thorns, but she t