Meet Dianna Mattson

Dianna: (Laughing) “Yeah, that’s a funny story for another time. But seriously, my father was a private investigator, and my mother was a lawyer, so, naturally, when I went to college at Hofstra University to study business administration, I just had to minor in criminology for the fun of it. I’ve always been a mystery girl.”

Me: “I’ll bet you read Nancy Drew as a kid?”

Dianna: “Yes, Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, then later Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, John Dickson Carr, all of the classics.”

Me: “You mentioned Christie. Are you camp Poirot or Miss Marple?”

Dianna: “Both, really. But I guess I lean a little toward team Poirot.”

Me: “And solving a mystery is how you met your husband, Charley?”

Dianna: “That’s right. The night I came to Dickens Station on the train to become the new manager of The General Store, I noticed Charley with several of his traveling companions. He didn’t look well. We all got stranded at Dickens Station by a snowstorm, and while they were waiting for the tracks to be cleared, we found out that Evan Marley had lost his sugarbush supervisor. Charley formerly owned and ran a sugarbush of his own. So, the next day we all went out to help Evan, and while firing up Evan’s sugar shack, I discovered something was amiss with Charley’s companions. The rest, as they say, is history. We married two years later, and now we run The General Store together.”

Me: “You also help our local Chief Constable, Robert Peeler, from time to time, isn’t that correct?”

Dianna: “Oh, he humors me. He knows I like to dabble in mysteries, so he lets me tag along when he has a particularly interesting case. Like the Case of the Telltale Tiles, where we recently recovered some black diamonds missing at Dickens Manor.”

Me: “With your retail experience and love of mysteries, is there enough excitement in Dickens Station to hold your interest?”

Dianna: “I’m reminded of something Amelia Dickens said to me when we first met. She said, ‘You’ll find, after you’ve been here for a while, that things happen for a reason at Dickens Station. Sometimes miraculous things.’ Dickens Station is never wanting for mysterious and miraculous adventure. I am thankful to be a part of it.”