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Kensington Books brings us one other pleasant seasonal trio of novellas excellent for the upcoming Easter vacation–this time that includes three of my favourite cozy thriller authors!
Leslie Meier opens the gathering with the title story. Intrepid reporter Lucy Stone is masking the most recent initiative by the Tinker’s Cove Chamber of Commerce to drum up foot visitors for native retailers. Collaborating shops might be handing out Easter egg stickers for each in-person buy of at the least 10 {dollars}. These stickers could be affixed to playing cards, with full playing cards of 10 stickers eligible to enter a raffle for an Easter basket prize. The basket accommodates the standard candies and reward certificates but in addition encompasses a contribution from well-known and eccentric native sculptor Karl Klaus: a gilded egg probably price hundreds of {dollars}.
When the egg unexpectedly goes lacking from the place it’s being displayed, Lucy will get on the case. There are a number of retailers whose fondness for this newest initiative has been decidedly lackluster–may certainly one of them have stolen the egg in an effort to humiliate the organizers? As scandal rears its ugly head in Tinker’s Cove, Lucy should race to cease a thief from perpetrating the last word crime.
The second novella, Lee Hollis’s Demise By Easter Egg, has chaos descending on Hayley Powell’s already busy life when she hosts her son, Dustin; his girlfriend, MacKenzie; and their two year-old, Eli, for Easter. Eli is a terror, however Hayley hopes to channel a few of his energies into an Easter Egg hunt on the native college. When she finds that he’s absconded with an Easter Basket stuffed with sweet that doesn’t belong to him, she isn’t too frightened initially–till she finds an Epipen within the backside.
Figuring out that this basket seemingly belongs to Raymond Dobbs, the city’s long-standing Easter Bunny with a well-known deadly allergy to peanuts, she hurries to return it to him. Alas, she’s too late. Ray has fallen sufferer to anaphylactic shock from unknowingly consuming peanut butter-filled candies from the incorrect basket. Somebody has clearly gone to plenty of hassle to modify out his basket for a deadly one, and Hayley goes to search out out who, if solely to assuage Dustin and MacKenzie’s conscience at not higher disciplining their tearaway baby.
The ultimate story right here is Hopped Alongside by Barbara Ross. Julia Snowden is thrilled on the progress being made on restoring her household’s Windsholme Island, simply off the coast of Maine and a brief boat journey away from their mainland residence in Busman’s Harbor. Her household is raring to have a good time the island’s imminent inhabitability with a small Easter celebration for his or her nearest and dearest. When Julia finds a lifeless physique within the backyard, nevertheless, the festivities come to a screeching halt. Issues solely get weirder when the physique disappears after she runs for assist. Is a killer taking part in a twisted recreation with the Snowden household, or is one thing far stranger afoot?
All of those novellas felt like seamless continuations of the collection they arrive from, and I totally loved every of them as a quick go to to fictional settings I already know and love. In the event you’re not but accustomed to these authors and their wonderful collection, nevertheless, I strongly urge you to choose up this quantity to get a small sampling of their extremely entertaining works.
There have been seven foods and drinks recipes included right here, and since there’s hardly ever a time I’m not craving potatoes, I made a decision to check out this one from Demise By Easter Egg:
Components
3 kilos potatoes
1 cup bitter cream
1 cup half and half
1 entire bundle Lipton French Onion Soup combine
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (or cheese of your selection)
Directions
Pre-heat your oven to 400 levels. Slice your potatoes into ¼-inch slices (I exploit a meals processor). You need all of them to be just about the identical dimension.
In a big bowl, whisk the bitter cream, half and half, and soup combine. Add the sliced potato and one cup of the cheddar cheese and blend till nicely mixed.
Pour into a 3 quart casserole dish or 13×9 pan and unfold to suit pan.
Cowl with aluminum foil and bake for 50 to 55 minutes.
Take away from oven and test to see if potatoes are smooth. If not, cowl and place again in oven till smooth.
When finished, take away from oven and add the remainder of the shredded cheese and place again within the oven for 10 to fifteen extra minutes till cheese is melted and simply starting to brown.
Take away from oven, then let sit for quarter-hour.
Serve and revel in!
That is such a scrumptious variation on scalloped potatoes, particularly if you happen to love the style of bitter cream and onions, as my household does. And when you can eat this by itself, it makes a superb aspect dish with nearly any protein and vegetable. As with every casserole, the toughest half is the preparation: I simply slice my potatoes thinly and take into account many of the effort finished. The completed dish additionally retains fairly nicely within the fridge for leftovers.
Subsequent week, we head to the Midwest to bake up one other delicious deal with whereas attempting to determine who would need to body our heroine for homicide. Do be a part of me!
See additionally: Cooking the Books: Homicide on the Blarney Bash by Darci Hannah
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