Scorched Eggs

October 6, 2014
Early in Childs’s entertaining sixth Cackleberry Club mystery set in the Midwestern town of Kindred (after Eggs in a Casket), Hannah Venable perishes in a fire that destroys the county services building where she worked. In what becomes an arson case, suspicion falls on Hannah’s estranged husband, Jack. Perky Suzanne Dietz finds time to investigate the crime in between planning, cooking, and serving two meals a day, plus afternoon tea and assorted special events, at the Cackleberry Club. She runs the cafe with two partners, Toni and Petra, with whom she mulls over the case. Fortunately, Sheriff Roy Doogie is happy to share what he knows with Suzanne, and even the arson investigators brought in from out-of-town have no compunction about including her. Some dollops of romance add spice. Culinary cozy fans will welcome the egg-centric recipes that round out the volume. Agent: Sam Pinkus, Veritas Media.

November 1, 2014
Three 40-something gal pals pool their resources to solve another local crime. Suzanne, Toni and Petra own the Cackleberry Club, a popular restaurant in the Midwestern hamlet of Kindred, where down-home cooking meets locally sourced ingredients. While getting her hair done one afternoon, Suzanne smells smoke. Suddenly the building next door, which houses the County Services Bureau, explodes in flame, killing county agent Bruce Winthrop's secretary, Hannah Venable. Having built a reputation by helping Sheriff Doogie solve several cases (Eggs in a Casket, 2014, etc.), Suzanne finds several people begging her to take up the case-first and foremost her friend Kit Kaslik, whose wedding to Ricky Wilcox is rudely interrupted when Doogie arrests the groom before he can say "I do." Ricky insists the blasting caps in his car have been planted, and there are certainly plenty of other suspects, including Hannah's cheating husband. Suzanne is busy getting her quarter horse ready for the barrel-racing competition at the fair, hosting a sold-out dinner theater at the cafe, cooking gourmet dinners for her doctor boyfriend and even playing momma to a baby owl that fell out of a tree behind the restaurant. But she's not too busy to poke her nose where someone thinks it doesn't belong. As a reward, she's shot at while out riding, and her veterinarian's office is nearly set afire while she's visiting with her pooch. Even Doogie wants her to butt out. But she and her fearless friends refuse to give up until the killer is found. The clutch of suspects and appended recipes aren't quite enough to bring this up to the standard of Childs' other series, especially the Tea Shop series (Steeped in Evil, 2014, etc.).

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November 1, 2014

Suzanne desperately needs her roots touched up before Kit Kaslik's wedding. But when the historic old County Services Bureau building explodes next door, she escapes safely out of the beauty parlor. Sadly, beloved Hannah Venable dies of smoke inhalation. Now Suzanne and her Cackleberry Club Cafe co-owners vow to find the arsonist in this sixth series entry (after Eggs in a Casket). Recipes included.

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