Lisa Ks Book Reviews blog is proud to bring to you

THE COZY TIMES

Special Edition

This is a weekly online publication focused on connecting cozy mystery readers to favorite cozy characters by way of their town's newspapers. 

The Cozy Times will be available Wednesdays right here on Lisa Ks blog. 

There will also be weekend editions, and special editions from time to time. So keep watch. 

Today The Cozy Times is featuring the 

The Cloverdale Courier

The Courier has had good and bad things going on this week!  

Check it out!

ACCOUNTANT DIES, POISON SUSPECTED

Staff Reporter Mary Ellen Hughes

Cloverdale resident, Dirk Unger, was taken to the hospital Friday evening, suffering from what first appeared to be a heart attack. Mr. Unger died shortly after arriving. Upon examination, the cause of his cardiac-like symptoms was suspected to be poison rather than natural causes. The exact nature of the poison is still under investigation.

Mr. Unger moved to Cloverdale only recently, as a top-level employee at Porter Realty, which relocated lately to Cloverdale and is owned by Jeremy Porter. Unger has been described as Porter’s right hand man.

“Dirk has been with me for years,” Mr. Porter stated on learning of Mr. Unger’s death. Porter looked distraught, adding that he couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to do away with his valued employee. When contacted, several other acquaintances of Mr. Unger declined to comment.

Sheriff Carlyle stated they will be looking into everything Mr. Unger had eaten on his last day.

TARA’S TIDBITS: On and About Cloverdale by Tara Tilbury

We hear that Piper Lamb, who owns and operates that popular, one-of-a-kind shop, Piper’s Picklings, over on Beech Street, has added a tasty new addition to her amazing line of pickles and preserves: Brandied Cherries!

We’re going to run right over and snap up a jar, which she tells us makes an absolutely scrumptious dessert when served over pound cake!

Sugar Heywood, one of Cloverdale’s leading caterers, as well as several Cloverdale ladies, who can most certainly be described as jam and preserve connoisseurs, have pronounced the Brandied Cherries “to die for!”

               ~~~~~~

A special thank you to Staff Reporter 

Mary Ellen Hughes

That's this week's edition of 

The Cozy Times 

I hope you enjoyed!

To learn more about the charming town of Cloverdale, NY, and 

it's residents, read the 

Pickled and Presevered Cozy Mystery series 

by author 

Mary Ellen Hughes.

FIRST IN A NEW SERIES!

After her dreams of romance are crushed, Piper Lamb decides to pursue her dream of opening her own shop of pickles and preserves, called Piper’s Picklings, in the idyllic small town of Cloverdale. But she isn’t in town long before she encounters a barrelful of trouble…
 
The Cloverdale fair offers Piper a sweet opportunity to promote her business. With her new assistant, Amy, she sets up a booth centered around an eye-catching display of the ever-popular dills in an old-fashioned barrel of brine.
 
But things soon turn sour when fairgoers witness a fight between Amy’s boyfriend, Nate, and town council blowhard—and bagpipe player—Alan Rosemont. When Rosemont is found floating in Piper’s barrel, Nate becomes the prime murder suspect. With Amy’s boyfriend in a pretty pickle, there’s no time to dillydally. But as Piper searches for the real killer, she needs to be careful to preserve her own life…or she may end up a pickled Piper herself.

INCLUDES RECIPES

From the author of The Pickled Piper comes another Pickled and Preserved Mystery...

Piper Lamb knows how to make fruits and vegetables keep for months. Unfortunately, it’s the people around her who are expiring too soon…

After her fiancé left her, Piper came to Cloverdale to rebuild her life and open up her shop, Piper’s Picklings, to sell pickles and preserves. When her ex decides to drop in for a visit—just as things are heating up between her and a local Christmas tree farmer—Piper finds herself in a jam.
But there are other visitors to worry about…

An Italian soccer team is set to play the Cloverdale All-Stars in an exhibition game. Their manager, Raffaele Conti, was a bitter rival of Piper’s dill supplier, local farmer Gerald Standley. After Conti is found dead in Standley’s field, Piper must work to clear Gerald’s name and find out who relished killing Raffaele before the town is soured by another death.

INCLUDES RECIPES!

The national bestselling author of License to Dill returns with a dilly of a pickle.
 
Piper Lamb has to take a break from jarring her delicious pickles and preserves to blow the lid off a poisoner....
 
Business is booming at Piper’s Picklings in Cloverdale, New York. But not all is sweet in the life of Piper’s number one customer and friend, local caterer Sugar Heywood. Sugar is dating wealthy realtor Jeremy Porter, but his family doesn’t approve. After their unscrupulous accountant finds some dirt on Sugar, the family quickly urges Jeremy to throw her out like rotten fruit.
 
Things are further spoiled after the accountant is found poisoned, and all evidence points to Sugar’s son, Zach. With the Porter family determined to avoid scandal, it won’t be easy for Piper to preserve Zach’s innocence. And after someone falls victim to a poisoned jar of some of her brandied cherries, Piper’s got a peck of trouble to deal with herself…

Is there a cozy town you'd like to see featured in 

The Cozy Times? 

Please let me know in the comments section.

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let me know what you think!

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