recipes

Daryl Wood Gerber: A Classic Case of Murder

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Literary Dining Mystery #3

It’s Christmas time in Bramblewood, NC and personal chef and caterer Allie Catt is getting ready for a special literary dinner party with a Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol theme. What makes the event so special? An actual first-edition of Dickens’ famous novella will be on display.

The setting is the Amber Lantern, an inn owned by Noeline Merriweather (mom of Allie’s best friend Tegan); there’s a snowstorm; most of the major characters are staying at the inn… it’s a classic Mousetrap setup, just as the title indicates! There’s also list of characters at the beginning of the book. The only Golden Age element missing is a map of the Inn and Bramblewood. read more

Lee Hollis: Death of a Tom Turkey

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Haley Powell #18

Lee Hollis’ latest Haley Powell mystery, Death of a Tom Turkey, is the perfect fit for a thanksgiving read. Haley Powell is a food writer and the owner of Hayley’s Kitchen restaurant in Bar Harbor, Maine. While food is her primary passion, she has developed a deep love and talent for investigation, too. She’s aided in her sleuthing by her husband Bruce, who is a crime reporter, and her brother in law Sergio, who happens to be the chief of police. Haley has a warm and soothing personality, perfect for putting people at ease and getting them to open-up and tell her things they might not be so willing to tell Sergio or any other officer of the law. However, even though she can often coax them to talk to her alone, she encourages them to speak to the police as well, sometimes going as far as to offer to go along with them as support so they don’t feel as intimidated or vulnerable. read more

Gigi Pandian: A Midnight Puzzle

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Secret Staircase #3

In the third book in Gigi Pandian’s locked room series her heroine, magician Tempest Raj, seeks the answer to a devastating question: who killed her mother?  A supposed “curse” decrees that the eldest born child in the family will die while performing magic. It may sound ridiculous but Tempest’s aunt and mother both passed that way, and Tempest herself has already suffered a narrow escape.  The killing that opens the book is that of the wealthy bully who has been suing Tempest’s family construction company, insisting that the staircase that collapsed and put his wife in a coma was the result of shoddy construction. read more