by Sandra Murphy

Details on how to win a copy of Scorched Eggs at the end of this review, along with a link to purchase the book from indie bookstore Mysterious Galaxy.

Kit and Ricky’s vintage wedding is scheduled to take place in the park. Petra, Toni and Suzanne, the three owners of the Cackleberry Club restaurant (and Book Nook and yarn shop) are looking forward to the festivities. Suzanne is in the midst of a hair emergency (blond highlights if you must know) when she smells smoke. Of course, her first thought is that the bubblehead hair dryer is reacting with the foil on her hair. She looks like a baked potato, ready for the oven as it is. The smell gets stronger and the air fogs a bit. She calls the alarm and as people exit the salon, the building next door goes up in flames.

Fortunately, Bruce Winthrop wasn’t in the office when the fire started but unfortunately, his office manager, Hannah was. She died of smoke inhalation.

The fire chief rightly suspects arson. The question is who or what was the target? Surely no one had a grudge against the County Services Bureau? Bruce might have been the target or Hannah, or maybe the upstairs neighbor Annie, who is separated (not amicably) from her husband. It seems a stretch to think Annie’s husband would blow the building out from under his own son but the child wasn’t supposed to be home that afternoon. Firefighters were able to rescue Annie and the boy. Hubby remains on the suspect list.

Hannah’s husband is also there. It’s rumored that he has a girlfriend of the floozy sort. Hannah’s wedding ring went missing and it was ‘dear hubby’ who pawned it. Did he want to get rid of Hannah as well?

Petra is not usually in favor of Suzanne’s need to know but in this case, Hannah was a friend. Toni, as always, is up for anything, including when they want to toss a rock against a house to get the occupant out for a minute. As per usual, what can go wrong, does go wrong.

Suzanne’s got her hands full, what with the wedding, the restaurant, a dinner theater production in the restaurant, her honey Sam and her two dogs. All this and a baby owlet that fell out of his nest and now relies on Suzanne to feed him pureed hamburger and rice from an eye dropper every few hours.

Any one of the Cackleberry gals gets more done in an hour than the rest of us do in a day (or maybe a week). The friendship between the women is strong. We all know Toni should drop her on again/off again husband Junior, but he’s so darn entertaining we’d miss him if she did. Petra provides the common sense when the other two start to go off the rails – no wonder they don’t tell her everything.

Good friends, good food (recipes included) and a good mystery combine to make a great read. Childs is a prolific writer and author of the Tea Shop Mysteries (15), the Scrapbooking Mysteries (12), six Cackleberry books (Eggs in a Casket was reviewed for KRL) and two anthologies.

To enter to win a copy of Scorched Eggs simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “Eggs,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen February 28, 2015. U.S. residents only. If entering via email please include your mailing address, and if via comment please include your email address.

Check out other mystery articles, reviews, book giveaways & short stories in our mystery section.

For more food fun check out our monthly food column How I Met My Dinner.

Use this link to purchase a copy of the book & a portion goes to help support KRL & an indie bookstore:

Scorched Eggs

Sandra Murphy lives in the shadow of the arch, in the land of blues, booze and shoes—St Louis, Missouri. While writing magazine articles to support her mystery book habit, she secretly polishes two mystery books of her own, hoping, someday, they will see the light of Barnes and Noble. You can also find several of Sandra’s short stories on UnTreed Reads including her new one Bananas Foster. Sandy’s latest short story “The Tater Tot Caper” is one of eleven stories in The Killer Wore Cranberry: Fourths of Mayhem. The annual Thanksgiving anthology has eleven stories and this year, includes recipes. And it’s on sale! Available in all e-versions and in print.