It's

Cozy Food Friday

That means it's time to share a recipe from 

another great cozy mystery!

Today I'm featuring 

THE SILENCE OF THE FLANS

Book 2 in the Emergency Dessert Squad Mysteries

by Laura Bradford

The second delectable Emergency Dessert Squad Mystery from the national bestselling author of Éclair and Present Danger.
 
Baker Winnie Johnson does her best work when the heat is on. As owner of the Emergency Dessert Squad, she has a deft touch in the kitchen and a soft spot for lost causes. So when her business professor beau, Jay Morgan, expresses misgivings over having to fail one of his fourth-year students, Winnie cooks up a sweet solution. 
 
She’ll offer an extra credit opportunity in exchange for a little help with her growing business. But when her protégé’s first dessert delivery poisons a student journalist, the publicity threatens to burn Winnie’s business to a crisp. Now the entrepreneur-turned-detective must uncover the ingredients behind a recipe for murder before she crumbles under pressure...

RECIPES INCLUDED

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MY REVIEW

EMERGENCY ALERT! The Emergency Dessert Squad Mystery series is one of the tastiest cozy mystery series I’ve read!

I have had a craving to read THE SILENCE OF THE FLANS since I read the last page of ÉCLAIR AND PRESENT DANGER, book one in this delightful series. As always, author Laura Bradford has penned a tale that was totally worth the wait!

I’ve read all sorts of books ranging from awful to fabulous. Fabulous is the description that has fit every book I’ve read by Laura Bradford (including her pen name, Elizabeth Lynn Casey). She has a way of making me feel I am living a story as I read it. I can envision myself in every scene, watching it play out before my eyes. This wonderful book was no different.

Humor, decadent desserts, and a first rate mystery are what you’ll find between the covers of THE SILENCE OF THE FLANS. Everything great about the first book in this series is multiplied tenfold in this delicious installment. This was a solid mystery. Harder to figure out than some I have read. However, if you listen to your inner Nancy Drew, you may come pretty close to guessing it. But Ms. Bradford won’t make it easy for you. ;-)

Make sure to check out the fun recipes at the back of the book. And, read an excerpt of book three, DIAL M FOR MOUSSE! 

Creative and unique, THE SILENCE OF THE FLANS is everything cozy readers are looking for in a book, and so much more!

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On to the recipe

KOOTCHY-KOOTCHY-KOO KUCHEN

(Apple)

All food photos borrowed courtesy of Google Images.

Crust:

1 cup flour

¼ cup confectioner's sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup butter

Filling:

4 Granny Smith apples (peeled, and cut into 6-8 wedges each)

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ tablespoon cinnamon

3 tablespoons flour

1 8-ounce container sour cream

   1. Combine all crust ingredients in a bowl to form dough. Pat gently into lightly sprayed 13 x 9 pan.

   2. Arrange apple wedges across top of crust. 

   3.  In separate bowl, beat eggs. Blend in sugar, salt, cinnamon, flour, and sour cream. Pour over fruit-topped crust. 

   4. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes. Then reduce heat to 325 degrees and bake for 30 - 35 minutes until filling is set. 

   5. Top with whipped cream if desired. Great warm with ice cream.

   6. Store in refrigerator.

Not only is this a great dessert, 

it would make a tasty breakfast!

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Please keep reading and check out my 

installments of 

Book Beginnings on Fridays

and

The Friday 56

Both the BB and 56 are from also from

THE SILENCE OF THE FLANS

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Book Beginnings on Fridays is a meme hosted by Rose City Reader

Share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading

My Book Beginnings

Winnie Johnson capped her pen and tossed it onto the wicker table, narrowly missing the black rook poised to capture the white queen.

"Whoa, I'm sorry, Mr. Nelson. I guess I wasn't thinking."

"Winking? You want to learn how to do some winking?" The seventy-five-year-old former sailor extracted the pen from the middle of the chessboard and set it on the edge of the table closest to Winnie. "I can teach you how to do some winking."

The Friday 56 is a meme hosted by Freda's Voice

Rules: *Grab a book, any book. *Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader (If you have to improvise, that's okay.) *Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it) that grab you. *Post it.

My Friday 56 

Feeling her leg begin to bounce again, she forced herself to look away, to focus on something besides the dread she felt building in the pit of her stomach.

As always, please leave a comment and 

let me know what you think!

Follow my blog by 

clicking on the link in the 

upper right hand corner of this page.

Have you heard the news?

It's great!

It's exciting!

 It's thrilling!

Summer Prescott Books 

has a new author!!!

Yes!

Karoline Barrett!

Karoline is the wonderful author of the 

Bread and Batter Mystery series.

Her first two titles were 

published by Penguin.

Two bakery owners get mixed up with murder in the first adventure in the all-new Bread and Batter Mystery series...
 
As the co-owners of Bread and Batter Bakery in Destiny, New York, Molly Tyler and Olivia Williams have plenty on their plates. Molly is recently divorced and looking for a place to live, but they’re also both preparing for Destiny’s annual Apple Harvest Fair. The bakery has a booth where they’ll be selling not only delicious cupcakes and cider doughnuts, but also tote bags and t-shirts emblazoned with the bakery’s logo.
 
Tensions rise at the fair when local orchard owner Calista Danforth discovers organizers have assigned her usual booth to Bread and Batter. Although a heated argument ensues between her and Molly, the bakery manages to rake in lots of dough. But when Calista is found strangled to death with one of their t-shirts, Molly is named the prime suspect. Now these two friends must whip up some answers quickly before the future of their business crumbles...

The author of Bun for Your Life returns to Destiny, New York, where bakery owners and amateur sleuths Molly Tyler and Olivia Williams never crumble under pressure...
 
While the rest of Destiny is focused on the arrival of an upper crust perfume mogul, Molly is more concerned about what’s on the front page of the newspaper: her mother. Library director Anne Tyler was photographed at the most romantic restaurant in town having a cozy dinner with library advisory board member Philip Baldelli. But there’s more for Molly to worry about after Philip is found dead a few days later.
 
When Detective Sean Corsino zeroes in on Anne as a person of interest in the case, it turns down the heat on his budding romance with Molly. But after he’s injured during the course of his investigation, Molly and Olivia must step in to sift through the clues and clear Anne’s name.

The third book in the 

Bread and Batter Mysteries

 is coming soon from 

Summer Prescott Books!

Learn more about Karoline, 

and 

Summer Prescott Books below. 

karolinebarrett.com/ 

www.facebook.com/KarolineBarrettBooks

twitter.com/KarolineBarrett 

summerprescottbooks.com/

www.facebook.com/SummerPrescottBooksPublishing/?ref=br_rs/

https://twitter.com/@summerprescott1/

It's time to share another great series! 

This week my series spotlight is on

TALK RADIO MYSTERIES

by 

Mary Kennedy

Mary Kennedy is a practicing psychologist and is the author of the Talk Radio Mysteries and the Dream Club Mysteries. She's written nearly 50 novels and has sold over four million books worldwide. Mary lives with her husband and six neurotic cats in the northeast. She has tried unsuccessfully to psychoanalyze both husband and cats, but she remains optimistic. 

You can visit her at www.marykennedy.net and she blogs every Monday with the Cozy Chicks www.cozychicksblog.com.

About the TALK RADIO MYSTERY series:

"Frasier Meets Murder She Wrote"—that's how readers have described the Talk Radio Mysteries. It's all about a New York psychologist who moves to sunny Florida to become a radio talk show host. Of course, she solves a murder in every book! Start with the first release, DEAD AIR and you'll be hooked on Dr. Maggie. All three releases are also available in audio.

The first in an original new series.

When a psychologist hits Florida's airwaves, there's no telling who she's reaching...

...and there's no telling who wants to reach back. 

Maggie left her clinical practice in Manhattan and moved to sunny Cypress Grove, Florida, where she became host of WYME's "On the Couch with Maggie Walsh." From co-dependent wives to fetish fiends, all the local crazies love her show. 

Then threats start pouring in against one of the station's special guests-self-styled new age prophet Guru Sanjay Gingii. When one of the threats becomes a deadly reality, Maggie's new roommate, Lark, is surprisingly the prime suspect. Now, Maggie has to prove Lark innocent while dealing with a killer who needs more than just therapy... 

Florida's newest talk show radio psychologist Maggie Walsh has no sooner gotten involved with a local movie production than the leading lady turns up dead. Now Maggie has to find the killer before the credits roll-or it might be her final performance.

Maggie's radio show has been getting a boost in ratings ever since Madame Chantal, who claims to talk to dead people, started her regular guest appearance. But when two women are killed after a séance, it's up to Maggie to catch the culprit before she winds up on the other side...

The Talk Radio Mystery series by author Mary Kennedy is a well written, entertaining series, with an unforgettable protagonist. 

You're going to want to add this series to your TBR (To Be Read) list!

As always, please leave a comment and 

let me know what you think!

Follow my blog by 

clicking on the link in the 

upper right hand corner of this page.

You thought you had all of the 

new releases for March didn't you?

Well then, you'd better check out these 

great titles that released today!

With summer approaching, Ellie Avery’s schedule is ruled by attending end-of-the-year events at her kids’ school—and avoiding run-ins with her arch competitor. When a murder disrupts the core curriculum, can the two women form an alliance to teach the killer a lesson in justice?

As a regular volunteer at North Dawkins Elementary, Ellie would never miss the annual Mother's Day breakfast—even if she has to tolerate the likes of Gabrielle Matheson. The rivals aren't exactly sworn enemies, although Ellie still thinks there's only room for one professional organizer in their small Georgia town.

But when Ellie sees Gabrielle in the hallway, she’s a mess. It looks like Gabrielle’s seen a ghost—or, as she explains, a dead body inside the supply closet. Before Ellie can get help the body vanishes . . . only to mysteriously reappear later at the school.

Little is known about the victim, a secretive snoop with a nosy nature and a penchant for keeping quiet about her own past. Ellie will leave no desk unturned to protect her kids and expose the cunning criminal’s identity. Because if she doesn’t, the killer may chalk up another textbook case of murder . . .
Don’t miss Ellie Avery’s great tips for PTA moms!

In the coastal town of Haven Harbor, blood runs thicker than water—and just as freely . . .

Antique dealer Sarah Byrne has never unspooled the truth about her past to anyone—not even friend and fellow Mainely Needlepointer Angie Curtis. But the enigmatic Aussie finally has the one thing she’s searched for all her life—family. And now she and long-lost half-brother, Ted Lawrence, a wealthy old artist and gallery owner in town, are ready to reveal their secret connection . . .

Ted’s adult children are suspicious of their newfound aunt Sarah—especially after Ted, in declining health, announces plans to leave her his museum-worthy heirloom paintings. So when Ted is poisoned to death during a lobster bake, everyone assumes she’s guilty. If Sarah and Angie can’t track down the real murderer in time, Sarah’s bound to learn how delicate—and deadly—family dynamics can truly be . . .

Despite the bitter winter in South Lick, Indiana, business is still hot at Robbie Jordan’s restaurant. But when another murder rattles the small town, can Robbie defrost the motives of a cold-blooded killer?
 
Before she started hosting dinners for Indiana University’s Sociology Department at Pans ‘N Pancakes, Robbie never imagined scholarly meetings could be so hostile. It’s all due to Professor Charles Stilton, who seems to thrive on heated exchanges with his peers and underlings, and tensions flare one night after he disrespects Robbie’s friend, graduate student Lou. So when Robbie and Lou go snowshoeing the next morning and find the contentious academic frozen under ice, police suspect Lou might have killed him after their public tiff. To prove her friend’s innocence, Robbie is absorbing local gossip about Professor Stilton’s past and developing her own thesis on the homicide—even if that means stirring up terrible danger for herself along the way . . .

Inn owner Rachel Mast is no longer a devout member of the Amish community of Stone Mill, Pennsylvania, but she still cares deeply for them. So she’s staying at her family’s farm to help her mother through an illness—and at the same time, trying to track down two missing people . . .
 
When the young gather to sing, it’s usually an evening of wholesome fun—but this time, the event has stirred whispers of scandal. Elsie Hostetler and her sweetheart, Dathan Bender, never came home afterward. There’s not even a trace of their horse and wagon, leading some to suspect that they’ve run off to marry and join the Englisch world.
 
But Rachel fears there’s more to the story than a rebellious elopement. Her fiancé, a state trooper, is out of town, so she starts investigating herself, using her Amish background to pry information from the tight-lipped community. It turns out things were not so peaceful between Elsie and Dathan—and there was also a confrontation at the singing with a short-tempered ex-Marine. Among the simple houses and quiet country roads of Stone Mill, Rachel must find out just what kind of sins have been committed—and who is need of forgiveness . . .

Which of these great titles are you most looking forward to?

As always, please leave a comment and 

let me know what you think!

Follow my blog by 

clicking on the link in the 

upper right hand corner of this page.

March 20, I read a blog post by, author Mary Kennedy, on the Cozy Chicks blog entitled

WHY I LOVE READING COZIES.

I don't always leave comments on other's blogs because I always seem to be rushing for time.

(Not a good excuse, because I love when people take a few minutes to comment on my blog, as I hope you will today.)

That being said, I did stop and comment this time.

I was not prepared for how long my answer would be.

I'm going to share it with you here today.

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Why I Love Reading Cozy Mysteries

by Lisa A. Kelley

 

I love Cozies for many reasons . . . 

1) Cozies led me back to reading. I had been reading suspense/thrillers for years. Suddenly I found excuses not to read. I didn't read a book for well over a year. My sister, also an avid reader, was concerned about me. She handed me a cozy mystery and told me to give it a try. I devoured it! That was over 5 years ago, and I haven't looked back since. The suspense/thrillers had become too dark for me. They had literally stolen my love of reading. 

The very first cozy mystery I ever read.

After reading BUTTERCREAM BUMP OFF, book two in the Cupcake Bakery Mysteries, I went back and read book one, then the rest of the series. After that, I read every book, in every cozy series, under every pin name Jenn McKinlay had published. I even had to buy a few used ones that were out of print. (This is a big deal to me because I am a germaphobe and I do not read used books. Only if I knew the person who read it before me.)

2) I love that I can read a well written mystery without darkness, cursing (most of the time), heavy sex scenes, or gruesome descriptions of murder or crime. (I'm kind of sad that some cozy authors are pushing the envelope a bit in some of these areas. Cozies are perfect as is, but I guess I see the author's need to try). 

These are the first two cozies that I walked into a bookstore, picked out and purchased for myself. All of the Jenn McKinlay books (other than the few I had to order used) belonged to my sister. THAT OLD FLAME OF MINE by J.J. Cook (the late Joyce and Jim Lavene) and HEARSE AND BUGGY by Laura Bradford are the I could call mine. I was concerned that all of the books I had read up to that point were by Ms. McKinlay. What if it was just her writing I liked? But the books by the Lavenes and Ms. Bradford showed me I was just starting my cozy mystery journey.

3) I learn so many new things! Occupations, and hobbies and crafts that had no appeal to me, I now find fascinating! I love when the book spends a lot of time in a character's shop. 

Bakerys, deep fried food restaurants, blueberry farms, food trucks, libraries, book clubs, scrapbooking, tea shops, knitting, sewing, needlepoint, glass bead making, yard sales . . I could go on and on about the different occupations and hobbies found in cozies. I learn so much!

4) Because of cozies, I have started my own blog, and found out...I'm good at it! I have never felt good about anything in my life. But people enjoy my blog and my reviews. They tell me so! 

I started reading cozies for enjoyment (I still do of course), then started writing reviews, and that led to blogging, and that led to having the best time of my life. No, seriously . . . blogging and reviewing have literally been the best part of my life. I have a feeling of achievement I've never had before. 

5) And because of the first four, #5 is the most important of all. I have made so many friends! The cozy community is full of kind, loving, goodhearted, creative, intelligent, supportive people. The authors, readers, reviewers, and bloggers in the cozy mystery community are like a family to me. I cheer for them as they do for me, I cry for them, as they do for me, I pray for them, as they do for me. This may sound corny to many, and I don't care if it does, cozy mysteries have given me a new life. One I was searching for without even knowing it. 

  

With some of the lovely authors I've been blessed to meet. 

Honestly, I have come to know the most amazingly good and kind people, all because of reading cozies. While I have had the chance to meet some of the authors, and a couple of sweet friends . . . other readers, reviewers, and bloggers I only know from online. They are some of the most wonderful people I've ever known. These people, this cozy community I have become a part of, they don't care what you look like. A lot of us have never even seen photos of each other. We get to know each other from the inside first,where it truly counts. No one cares that I am overweight. I have been all my life, and I have been very shy and backward because of it. Uncomfortable in my own skin. But those I have had the chance to meet, they made me forget while I was with them, that I was "fat" Lisa. To them, I am friend Lisa. 

There you go. 

The five reasons I read cozy mysteries. 

Truth be told, I could come up with many more, but I think I touched on the most important ones. 

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A big thank you to Mary Kennedy for her original post. It gave me the opportunity to express what I have been wanting to say for a very long time. You can find Mary's post here. . . 

WHY I LOVE READING COZIES

Check out the Cozy Chicks blog here. . .

www.cozychicksblog.com

Nancy Drew. . . Technically my first cozies. 

Please leave a comment and tell me,

why do you read cozies?