by Sunny Frazier

Easter is more than Peeps and chocolate bunnies. Check out recipes in four mysteries and four more novels for book lovers. That means YOU!

We’re off to a wedding in Bar Harbor, Maine, in the eleventh Hayley Powell mystery by Lee Hollis. The food and cocktails columnist will be Matron of Honor in her best friend’s nuptials. Snide comments are floating around because of the age difference of the couple. None are nastier than those from the groom’s cousin, who is baking the cake. When she’s found face down from on the top tier from a poisoned slice, the suspect list is longer than the guest list. Now the groom’s getting cold feet, so Hayley needs to solve the crime before the wedding ends before it begins. Death of a Wedding Cake Baker comes with seven recipes from Hayley’s kitchen.

It’s Knit One, Die Two for the Knit and Nibble club in Arborville, New Jersey. Their numbers are growing with a litter of kittens and a new member who’s an amateur actress. She needs to learn to knit for a role, and Pamela Paterson and crew are willing to help. However, when the woman starts spilling behind-the-scene stories, it’s curtains for her. Now the club is stitching together clues to solve the case. Author Peggy Ehrhart adds recipes and knitting tips in this her third Knit and Nibble series.

It’s time for the annual Pie Festival in Old Town and entertainment maven Sophia Winston is in charge of the pie eating contest. This year a hostess from a cooking show is the celebrity judge until she bites the crust. Turns out she wasn’t such a sweetie pie and alienated her jilted ex-husband, a bitter ex-mentor, and ex-BFF. Now Sophia must cobble the clues together before the festival crumbles. The Diva Sweetens the Pie is the twelfth in the series by Krista Davis. Recipes and entertaining tips included.

Welcome back to the Cookbook Nook, eighth in Daryl Wood Gerber’s culinary series. Readers from all over swarm Crystal Cover, California, to celebrate the library’s Book Club Bonanza Week. Jenna Hart has her shop packed with tasty reads, but she’s more excited about spending an evening with the Mystery Mavens. It’s all fun and food until one of the members is found dead. All the evidence points to Jenna’s friend, so our heroine goes Sifting Through the Clues to catch the killer. Sweet and savory recipes included.

On the other side of the country it’s a Prologue to Murder. Bookstore owner Addie Greyborne has left the Boston Library to move back to her hometown of Greyborne Harbor. When the local librarian leaves a book club meeting and is found dead at the bottom of a flight of stairs, the local gossip columnist points a finger at Addie. There’s a conflict since Addie is dating the chief of police. Even more of a conflict is the hot LA news reporter who shows up and drives a wedge between the couple. Could the death be connected to the book about pirate legends the deceased just wrote? Lauren Elliot keeps us turning pages in her second Bookstore Mystery.

Storyton Hall, VA, managed by Jane Steward is a paradise for book lovers. When her boyfriend goes missing, she thinks he might be at the historic Biltmore Estate in North Carolina. Pretending to be there to learn hotel management, she looks for secret passageways. One of the gardeners offers to help but is found dead in the potting shed. Locating her boyfriend’s kidnapper, the man thinks a missing suitcase belonging to Hemingway is at Storyton Hall. It’s Murder in the Reading Room, fifth in Ellery Adams’ Book Retreat series.

Death Waits in the Dark for writer’s apprentice Lena London and her friend, a famous suspense writer. A woman shows up demanding that the author reveal her husband’s family secret or she will. When the blackmailer is found dead, Lena is pretty sure the threats led to her demise. Julia Buckley gives us this Indiana mystery, the fourth in A Writer’s Apprentice mysteries.

BEST OF THE REST

V.M. Burns Wed, Read & Dead—Mystery Bookshop #4
J. A. Jance The A List—Ali Reynolds Mystery #14
Janet Finsilver Murder at the Marina—Kelly Jackson Mystery #5
Anne Perry Triple Jeopardy—Daniel Pitt Mystery #2
Shirley Rousseau Cat Chase the Moon—Joel Grey #21
Catriona McPherson Scot & Soda—Last Ditch Mystery #2
Paige Shelton The Loch Ness Papers-Scottish Bookshop #4
Barbara Allan Antiques Ravin’—Trash ‘n’ Treasures Mystery #13
G.A. McKevett Bitter Brew—Savannah Reid #24
C. J. Sansom Tombland—Matthew Shardlake #7
Edith Maxwell Charity’s Burden—Quaker Midwife #4
Heather Blake A Witch to Remember—Wishcraft Mystery #9
Frances Brody A Snapshot of Murder—Kate Shackleton Mystery #9
Nicola Upson Sorry for the Dead—Josephine Tey Mystery #8
Anna Lee Huber An Artless Demise—Lady Darby #7
Victoria Thompson Murder on Trinity Place—Gaslight Series #22

Check out other mystery articles, reviews, book giveaways & mystery short stories in our mystery section. And join our mystery Facebook group to keep up with everything mystery we post, and have a chance at some extra giveaways. Check back every month for Coming Attractions! Don’t forget to to check out for our mystery podcast which feature mystery short stories and first chapters read by local actors. A new episode goes up this week.

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Sunny Frazier worked with an undercover narcotics team in Fresno County for 17 years before turning her energies to writing the Christy Bristol Astrology Mysteries. Based in the San Joaquin Valley of California, the novels are inspired by real cases and 35 years of casting horoscopes.

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