A California Online Magazine with Local Focus and Global Appeal
This week we have 3 mysteries perfect for your Halloween reading including sweets, cats, and haunted mansions-Murder Most Sweet: A Bookish Baker Mystery by Laura Jensen Walker, A Case of Cat and Mouse: A Magical Cats Mystery by Sofie Kelly, and Haunted Homicide: A Haunted Mansion Mystery By Lucy Ness.
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It’s October. I know this is The Great Food Search, but do you really want to hear me tell of delicate dining? Of course not! You want the ooey-gooey, sticky-licky sweets, the sugar-laden and calorie-unconscious! Let’s go satisfy your sweet tooth!
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Ellie is enjoying her Florida vacation. Of course, in between a couple of pesky murders she was successful at solving, she relaxes by the pool, strolls on the beach, and heads over to the Bar & Grill for a cool cocktail, spicy treat, and some people watching. Today’s people watching included some awkward eavesdropping. Not on purpose, you know, Ellie overhears Walter Saunders, a wealthy guest, deep in conversation with his “not gonna remain silent” business partner, but when the conversation goes from gators to scorpions, she tries to find something else to occupy her interests.
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Emory’s life is more hectic than busy, but getting embroiled in a family squabble could be dangerous. Experimenting with a new cupcake flavor she plans to showcase at Tillie’s upcoming pre-Halloween party, she nearly flambés the kitchen. This doesn’t go well with Tillie’s eldest, and pretentious, grandson Theodore, but the youngest grandson Brian is a lot more helpful. Emotions, however, go ballistic when, only weeks after the unsolved hit and run death of wife number three, Skylar Senior introduces his fourth trophy wife whose age, manner, and details of their whirlwind romance solicit questions about background, motives, and prenups.
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This week we have 3 Halloween related food mysteries to help you get in the mood for Halloween-Boston Scream Murder: A Deputy Donut Mystery by Ginger Bolton, Death of a Wicked Witch: A Hayley Powell Mystery by Lee Hollis, and Gourd to Death: A Pie Town Mystery Book 5 by Kristen Weiss.
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You have to eat, right?
Restaurants have to make money to survive, so they will bend over backwards to follow the rules, and hope people will drive up…and drive out with some food.
Let’s eat!
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Pastry chef Lily Roberts always dreamed of opening her own traditional teashop. The opportunity to help her British grandmother Rose run her own Bed and Breakfast – not to mention Lily’s boyfriend chef coming at her with a chef’s knife – spurred Lily into finally opening Tea By the Sea in Cape Cod’s Outer Cape. Rose seems to view Lily as both her favorite relative and a lowly servant, but Lily adores being able to experiment with innovative teas and traditional British pastries. It also allows her to share a tearoom experience with her best friend Bernadette Murphy, who similarly left her corporate life in Manhattan to pursue her own dream as being a writer.
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What do you do for food during the pandemic?
Do you sit in a restaurant with other people, hoping that nobody is infected?
Do you hide in your home and try to survive on your year’s supply of chewy granola bars?
Do you look for minimum-contact food places where you can order and pick up without fear? Yeah, that’s what I’m trying to do with these play-it-safe editions of The Great Food Search.
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If you can’t take it with you, don’t get it. This set of take-outs are centered around my home and work.
El Pollo Loco—4865 E. Kings Canyon Rd., Fresno— Of course, I’m chicken! I always have been. I do get cravings for red meat, but I’m more of a chicken aficionado. I have clutched buckets of KFC and crunched my way through Popeye’s, but that flame-kissed yumminess from El Pollo Loco gets me every time.
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This week we have another group of fun food mysteries for your summer reading-Deadly Sweet Tooth: A Vintage Sweets Mystery by Kaye George, Peachy Scream: A Georgia B&B Mystery by Anna Gerard, Nacho Average Murder: A Country Store Mystery by Maddie Day, and Southern Sass and a Crispy Corpse: A Marygene Brown Mystery by Kate Young.
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This week we have another catch up group of mysteries perfect for your summer reading-Death by Auction: An Abby McCree Mystery by Alexis Morgan, Marshmallow Malice: Amish Candy Shop Mystery by Amanda Flower, Murder She Wrote The Murder of Twelve by Jessica Fletcher and Jon Land, And the Killer Is… A Savannah Reid Mystery by G. A. McKevett, and Antiques Fire Sale: A Trash ‘n’ Treasures Mystery by Barbara Allan.
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It happened. My daughter and I got sick of our own cooking. After three months of “It Came From My Kitchen,” we (and my wife) couldn’t take any more variations of Slow-Cooker Surprise and “Stuff Added to Packaged Mixes,” but our editor didn’t want us going to restaurants and dining like nothing was wrong with the world, even if they were open for business. For that reason, this Great Food Search features take-out food. (Lorie wanted places that deliver, too, but I have a perfectly rational fear of strangers coming to my door.)
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This week we have a bunch of food mysteries for your Father’s Day Feast! A Deadly Inside Scoop: An Ice Cream Parlor Mystery by Abby Collette, Pumpkin Spice Peril: A Cupcake Bakery Mystery by Jenn McKinlay, The Diva Spices it Up: A Domestic Diva Mystery by Krista Davis, Sugar and Vice: A Cookie House Mystery by Eve Calder, Killer Chardonnay: A Colorado Wine Mystery by Kate Lansing, and Murder with Clotted Cream: Daisy’s Tea Garden Mystery by Karen Rose Smith.
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It’s Huntington Beach, California. Emory Martinez is a “9 to 5” number cruncher, but her passion is cake decorating. With several “you’re so talented” comments and blue ribbons at the Orange County fair, she dreams of opening her own bakery one day specializing in cupcakes with unique designs and flavors. Now, on weekends, she works with her twin sister Carrie with her party planning and catering business. Carrie is older by only a few minutes, married, and has twin girls herself, but she has a meticulous, detail-oriented, and frustratingly self-absorbed manner.
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Matilda is a friendly, feisty furry ninja who loves to play and who is brimming with energy and personality who is 1 year old! She was found at the intersection of a busy road and the freeway and was scooped up by a Good Samaritan! She greets you with cute little meows and she loves to cuddle once she’d finished playing. She’s been fostered with other cats and she like to be the center of attention. Matilda is available from the Cat House on the Kings.
