Food & Spirits #1
Paranormal cozies are tricky things because the author has to balance a mystery that is solvable by the very corporeal detectives, while working in elements of myth and legend that often provide incorporeal clues. Darci Hannah starts off a new series with A Fatal Feast at Bramsford Manor. At first, I wasn’t sure when the paranormal was going to play in, as the main character Bridget “Bunny” MacBride is a chef on a cooking show under the main host. She is then offered a new contract where she will be the primary chef on a series that will be called Food & Spirits. Now, Bunny made one rather large mistake when accepting this particular job – she didn’t explore the contract thoroughly before signing. If she had, she might have seen that the ‘Spirit’ part of the show was not referring to beverages but to the dearly departed. Her main role is to be preparing meals to attract sprits to the table. Needless to say, she was far from pleased with that turn of events, but decides to stick with her contract and make the best of it. She keeps her fingers crossed that nothing spooky happens to her.
Turns out Bunny is a bit of a sensitive in her own right, and has been spending the majority of her life running away from all things supernatural and spooky. But she honors the fact that she did sign a contract, and just hopes the places they end up in are not exactly truthful about their haunting claims. Their first episode is to take place in Bramsford Manor, a hotel said to be haunted by the Mistletoe Bride. She was a young woman who died in the 18th century on her wedding night after an accident. What better way to entice an English bride to the table than with a traditional English holiday wedding dinner? Bunny prepares everything, trying to ignore the ominous feelings sneaking under her skin. Then the unthinkable happens: one of her knives goes missing only to turn up later in the chest of one of the evening’s dinner guests. Bunny is now facing a very real murder charge, all while the real killer still lurks in the Manor. With the help of her fellow hosts of the show, Brett and Giff, as well as her clairvoyant Grandma, Bunny decides to roll up her sleeves and figure out just what happened, as well as clear her name and catch a killer.
I have read many a paranormal cozy, and Darci Hannah managed to surprise me with A Fatal Feast at Bramsford Manor. There were some elements that I don’t often see, including the surprise of the ghost attached to Bunny herself. I won’t spoil it, but I will say that I was delighted with it. Obviously, this is the first in the series, so all readers to it are new. However, Darci Hannah has another series called the Beacon Bakeshop mysteries and if anyone has read those, they will enjoy this new series as well. Readers are introduced to Bunny in her ideal setting, far away from anything spooky, and get to journey with her as she gets dragged into the world she has spent a lifetime trying to get away from. Darci Hannah also tackles two mysteries in one in A Fatal Feast at Bramsford Manor, that of the current murder victim and that of the Mistletoe Bride that haunts the manor. Readers are in for an exciting journey alongside Bunny, and I highly suggest picking up a copy for yourself. As for me? I am very excited to see where Darci Hannah takes Bunny next. – Carla Schantz