Death of a Cozy Writer by G.M. Malliet
In ten words or less: Mystery writer threatens to disinherit children; who did him in?

Review: Millionaire mystery writer Sir Adrian Beauclerk-Fisk threatens his four adult childen with disinheritance on a regular basis. One day each of the children receives a garish invitation to their father's upcoming wedding to a woman named Violet. They imagine her as a young gold-digger, but much to their surprise she is an attractive, cultured woman of their father's age. And they are already married! What is their father up to?

Why bother? A mystery in the manner of Agatha Christie--which member of the assembled party at the manor house is the murderer? A teriffic page turner!

Insectopedia by Hugh Raffles

In ten words or less: What are human's reactions to insects? Revulsion, science, phobias, aesthetics.

Review: Insects have existed alongside of humans for as long as humans have been alive. Insects travel with humans; they eat. live, and sleep with us. In a series of essays, Raffles examines "how insects have triggered our obsessions, stirred our passions, and beguiled our imaginations."
Raffles talks with a woman who has studied insect mutations after Chernobyl--it's amazing to discover that no one in the science community was disturbed by her findings. Another chapter asks " how can locusts bring both feast and famine in Africa?"
In one essay, he examines Heinrich Himmler's statement, "Antisemitism is exactly the same as delousing." Prisoners at Auschwitz were killed in "delousing facilities," with an insecticide developed for delousing buildings and clothes. It is a deeply disturbing historical picture of Nazi Germany.
Why bother? Raffles presents some difficult problems for us to think about, yet does it without beating the reader over the head with statistics and dire predictions. A fascinating look at the interrelationship between insects and humans, "Insectopedia" is a book you will want to read and read again.

Sew Deadly by Elizabeth Lynn Casey

In ten words or less: Librarian is suspected of murdering a small town beauty queen.

Review: Tori Sinclair, excited to begin her new job a head of the Sweet Briar public Library, didn't suspect to come across a dead body in her first week on the job. Tiffany Ann Gilbert, the local beauty queen, is dead, and the local law thinks Tori had it in for her.
Why would Tori want to murder a woman she had never met? Other than the fact that Tori's a stranger, a Yankee (!), and that she was hired for a job that a local woman, Dixie Dunn, had held for years. Then there's the handsome elementary school teacher that Tiffany Ann had been unsuccessfully pursuing, and who has been seen having coffee with Tori at Debbie's Bakery.
Tori attempts to solve the mystery and win over the members of the local sewing circle.

Why bother? Fans of cozy mysteries set in small southern towns will want to check out this new series.

Saturday at the Farmers' Market

Here's a different way to prepare leeks, other than to use them in soup. Enjoy!

September Leeks

2 large leeks, well washed and sliced
1/2 cup boiling water
1 tablespoon raisins
Sea salt to taste
1 tablespoon flour
2 teaspoons soft butter

Place the leeks, water and raisins in a saucepan; cover and simmer until tender, about 15 minutes. Season with salt. Mix flour and butter together and gradually whisk into the leeks. Heat, stirring, until mixture thickens. Serves four.

Dine and Die on the Danube Express: a Gourmet Detective mystery by Peter King

In ten words or less: Famous actress goes missing but it's her understudy that's murdered.

Review: The Gourmet Detective takes a ride on the twenty-fifth anniversary journey of the legendary train, the Danube Express. The accommodations are sumptuous, and the scenery spectacular, as the train winds through Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Romania.
Magda Malescu, a celebrated actress and one of the passengers, is missing, and a European tabloid's headlines announce that she has been murdered. Malescu turns up unharmed, but her understudy is discovered dead in her compartment, apparently poisoned. Who wants to kill the understudy, or is it a case of mistaken identity?
The train's security personnel request assistance from the Gourmet Detective, who on occasion has helped Scotland Yard with a case.
Why bother? While questioning the other passengers, the Gourmet Detective partakes in lovingly described meals of epic proportions. It's a wonder all the passengers weren't indisposed with heartburn for the entire trip. This series has the same appeal as Margaret Truman's books--for readers who enjoy a travelogue along with their mystery.

Dancing in the Dark: a Toby Peters Mystery by Stuart Kaminsky
In ten words or less: Mobster threatens Fred Astaire; Toby Peters investigates and dances.

Review: Mobster "Fingers" Intaglia has a girlfriend who wants to be a dancer. The problem is that the girlfriend, Luna Martin, has two left feet and no sense of rhythm. Even lessons with Fred Astaire have proven useless.
Astaire wants out of the arrangement but Fingers won't have it. If Astaire wants to be able to dance another day, he'll teach Luna to dance the two-step. Astaire hires Toby Peters to get Fingers to see the light.

Why bother? Kaminsky's Toby Peters is a charming, if rough around the edges, private eye. The reader can just imagine the sloppy detective teaming up with the dapper dancer. Great fun!

Saturday at the Farmer's Market

Apples are here, and who said they're just for dessert? This is a good side dish with chicken or turkey.

Carrots 'n Apples

3 cups sliced unpeeled tart apples
3 cups sliced carrots, cooked
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cold margarine or butter
3/4 cup orange juice

Grease a 2 quart casserole dish and layer half the apples, then half the carrots. In a bowl, combine brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt. Cut in butter until crumbly; sprinkle half over casserole. Repeat layers. Pour orange juice over all. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Makes six servings.

Red Hook Road by Ayelet Waldman

In ten words or less: Couple is killed in crash after their wedding; families grieve.

Review: The death of a newlywed couple brings about changes in both their families as they cope with the tragic event.
Becca Copaken is the daughter of two New York professors who summer in Red Hook, Maine, where John Tetherly was raised by his cleaning lady mother. Becca's mother Iris planned the perfect wedding, right down to the masses of lupines in the church. And when Becca and John were running late to the reception, everyone thought it was because the photographer had to take just one more shot.
But their limo was hit head-on by another vehicle on a twisting rural road, and on the day their families expected to be celebrating a wedding, they were identifying bodies and planning funerals.

Why bother? Not a part of Waldman's popular mystery series, this novel would appeal to readers of Elizabeth Berg and Jacqueline Mitchard.

An Unopened Grave: Sherlock Holmes investigates his ultimate case by L. Frank James

In ten words or less: Sherlock Holmes meets Jesus and becomes a believer.

Review: The famous detective has retired, but takes on a missing persons case on behalf of Miss Elizabeth Hackberry, a devout Christian. While he investigates, his life is saved in a miraculous manner, and Holmes sets out to discover whether in fact, God died to save his life.
Holmes enlists the aid of Dr. Watson to steal a time machine, and the pair travel to the year 30AD, and meet Jesus Christ. After rescuing Watson from a local jail, Holmes uses his powers of deduction to prove Christ's resurrection.

Why bother? If you are interested in the intersection of Sherlock Holmes and Jesus Christ, you might be able to overlook the anachronisms in this tale.

Saturday at the Farmers' market

It's raining today at the market--not a great way to shop for vegetables. But football season is starting, and here's a great way to prepare veggies on a grill for a tailgate party.

Tailgater Vegetables

1 small cabbage, cored and cut into six wedges
2 tablespoons soft butter or margarine
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
4 medium carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 ribs celery, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 small onion, cut into 6 wedges
1/2 pound whole fresh mushrooms
1 small green pepper, cut into pieces

Spread butter on the sides of the cabbage wedges. Place cabbage on a piece of heavy duty foil (about 24 in. by 18 in.). Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Arrange the rest of the vegetables around the cabbage. Seal the foil and grill, covered, over medium heat for 30 minutes or until vegetables are done, turning occasionally. Serves six.

Scam by Parnell Hall

In ten words or less: Hastings gains a client and is accused of three murders.

Review: Private eye jobs are few and far between for detective Stanley Hastings. He's tried acting and screenwriting with no great success, and most of his jobs are for an attorney, documenting personal injury cases.
When he does get a real client walking through the door, Hastings is eager to get to the bottom of the case. The client, Cranston Pritchert, is a partner is an investment firm that is in the middle of a struggle for board chairman. Pritchert thinks that someone is setting him up to take a fall, to get him out of the way of an ambitious partner. But which partner?
Before he is done investigating, Hastings finds himself accused of three murders and no closer to discovering who set up his client.
Why bother? A traditional soft-boiled private eye novel--fans of Simon Brett, Robert Barnard, and Stuart Kaminsky's Toby Peters series should give Hall's series a try.

Murder Plays House by Ayelet Waldman

In ten words or less: Finding a body in the house doesn't deter Juliet's interest.

Review: Former public defender Juliet Applebaum is pregnant with her third child. Husband Peter works at home as a screenwriter and their house is getting just a bit too snug for their growing family. Juliet calls up her friend Kat, a Realtor, and makes an appointment to go house hunting.
The houses are disappointing, but Kat takes Juliet to a house that isn't quite on the market yet. It's probably out of my price range, thinks, Juliet, but I love the house. That is, until they discover the naked body of a skeletally thin unsuccessful actress in the bathtub.
Hoping that the owner will let her make an offer on the house, Juliet investigates the murder. She feels like a hugely pregnant whale, next to the actresses who are painfully yet have enormous breast implants.

Why bother? The attitudes of body images of girls and young women are central to the mystery. Juliet is horrified that her six year old daughter wants to diet, but all around her are anorexic women trying for careers in the entertainment industry. Waldman ties the body image issues together with the mystery in seamless fashion.

Saturday at the Farmers' Market

It's the end of summer and lots of tomatoes were on display, all kinds, all sizes. For 99 cents a pound, how can you go wrong?

End of the Summer Gazpacho

4 large ripe tomatoes, chopped and seeded (I don't bother to seed mine)
2 cucumbers, peeled chopped and seeded
1 large green pepper, chopped and seeded
10-12 green onions, chopped, including green part
1-2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
3 cups V-8 juice
1-1 1/2 cups water
Tabasco
Worcestershire sauce
Coarsely ground pepper

Beat vinegar and oil with garlic. Combine with chopped vegetables and stir in the V-8 juice. Add water to desired consistency. Season with Tabasco, Worcestershire, pepper. Chill. Serve with thinly sliced cucumbers as garnish. Makes 4-6 servings.

Twitterature by Alexander Aciman and Emmett Rensin

In ten words or less: Literary classics tweeted: WTF?

Review: A pair of college sophomores rework "literary classics for twenty-first-century intellect, in digestible portions of 20 tweets or fewer."
"The Aeneid" by Virgil lead off with "Got a gift of a huge wooden horse today, here in Troy. Just appeared outside the city gate. BTW: war going poorly."
It's one joke, stretched thin over 200 pages. Most of the tweets focus on sex, drugs, or scatological humor. When did "The Da Vinci Code," Harry Potter," and "Twilight" become literary classics? Maybe if you're twenty.

Why bother? Don't.

Pepperoni Pizza can be Murder: a pizza lover's mystery by Chris Cavender In ten words or less: Body in the pizza parlor spells trouble for Eleanor.

Review: Eleanor Swift runs a pizza parlor with her sister in a small North Carolina town. When a body is found bludgeoned to death with a rolling pin in their restaurant, their deliveryman Greg Hatcher is suspected. The victim is his brother Wade, and they've been fighting over money and a woman. Things are looking bad for Greg, but Eleanor believes in his innocence.
Greg hides out from the sheriff, Eleanor's high school sweetheart, while the two sisters investigate. This is the second in a series.

Why bother? Readers who enjoy a cozy mystery featuring a woman on her own struggling to keep a business afloat should give this series a try. Authors of similar series are Claudia Bishop, Joanne Fluke, and Sheila Connolly.

August's Books

The "I Hate to Cook Book: updated and revised" by Peg Bracken was originally published in 1960. This is the new fiftieth anniversary edition of her classic cookbook. I still have my copy of the original, bought sometime in the early 1970s, yellowed and stained and well-used. Even if I'm not planning to make one of the recipes, I still read through it just to appreciate Bracken's humor. Time to replace the original, perhaps?

The Withdrawing Room by Charlotte MacLeod
Movie by Parnell Hall
Insider's Guide to Nashville by Jackie Finch
The Odd Job by Charlotte MacLeod
Off the Beaten Path: Tennessee by Tim O'Brien
The Balloon Man by Charlotte MacLeod
Summer Lightning by P.G. Wodehouse
Chili con Corpses by J.B. Stanley
Murder Plays House by Ayelet Waldman
Twitterature: the world's greatest books in twenty tweets or less by Alexander Aciman
The Scoop from Bird Poop: 35 years of wild bird rescues by Bebe McCasland
Red Hook Road by Ayelet Waldman
Eiffel's Tower: and the world's fair from where Buffalo Bill beguiled Paris, the artists quarreled, and Thomas Edison became a count by Jill Jonnes
I Hate to Cook Book by Peg Bracken
Pepperoni Pizza can be Murder by Chris Cavender
Dane County Farmers Market: a personal history by Mary Carpenter