Homeland Security Analyst Claire Green comes to her brother Alan’s Pleasant Valley home, but he’s missing. She asks for help from Alan’s neighbors, Police Captain Nate Zuberi and his wife, Madison. They invite her to supper along with Private Investigator Rafe O’Connell, her former boyfriend.
He’s the only man Claire has ever loved, but she must focus on finding her brother. Clues that Alan had been involved in illegal activities frighten her. Can they find him in time to save his life?
This well-written and fast-paced story grabbed my attention and held on. Suspenseful. Action-packed. Real, believable characters. I tried to solve the mystery along with the detectives. I didn’t guess correctly.
A page turner! Highly recommended for those who love action-packed cozy mysteries.
Charlotte Graves now lives in the beautiful Rose Haven mansion with her grandmother. Her grandmother’s offer to give her the whole estate shocks her. Things are going so well with her renewed relationship with Roan Steele and her job as a genealogist. Before she can even consider it, people from her past challenge the home’s ownership.
Now she’s fighting for her family home. Intruders and murder quickly escalate the danger. And then someone close to Charlotte is accused of murder, further entangling her into the mayhem.
This talented author’s latest cozy mystery is another page-turner! Her strong Southern voice shines in Grave Decisions, the second book in the series. This well-written novel draws readers into the mystery from the beginning, one that includes William Shakespeare.
Lovable, realistic characters invited me into a small Alabama town in the 1960s. Williams weaves such an authentic feel that the characters seem to step off the page.
Highly recommended for those who enjoy cozy mysteries!
Charlotte Graves is the new director of the local historical and genealogical society. She’s back in Loblolly after eight years but old hurts die hard. Or are murdered.
Before she knows what’s happening, Charlotte is arrested for the murder of Boopsie Sweets, an old enemy from her childhood. Worse, she’s arrested by Roan Steele, the man who’d broken her heart back in high school.
There’s mystery afoot that only a genealogist can decipher!
Lovable, realistic characters invited me into a small Alabama town in the 1960s. Williams weaves an authentic feel with details such as music, clothing, decorations, and furniture. The characters seem to step off the page from an era 50 years ago.
The story drew me in immediately. It was a page-turner for me!
The story is well-written with escalating tension that kept me turning pages. I’ll look for more books by this author. Recommend!
Private Investigator Mackenzie Love witnesses a thief running away from a robbery in a park. A body is found that same day. She and fellow investigator Sam are hired to recover items stolen from a time capsule. They need customers to keep their business afloat so they agree, little knowing the danger.
Detective Jake Sanders is assigned to the case and then learns his feisty girlfriend Mac is a witness. Since she’s investigating the crime for a client, the two work separately and share findings with one another.
Escalating mystery and danger at every turn kept me turning pages. Many twists and turns held my interest. Danger faced by multiple characters that I’d grown to love had me on the edge of my seat.
I received an advanced copy from the author and happily endorsed the book. All opinions are my own.
This suspenseful story will keep readers turning pages. Recommended for those who enjoy mystery and suspense novels!
Today’s post is written by fellow author and friend, Jennifer Allen. I love her mysteries and am looking forward to reading her newest release. Welcome back to Historical Nibbles, Jennifer!
by Jennifer Allen
In the break room at my first “real” job in Zanesville, Ohio, I unpacked my lunch and took out an oblong roll.
A colleague looked at it and asked what it was.
“A pepperoni roll.” I was surprised. I’d grown up on pepperoni rolls. I thought everybody knew about them.
So my colleague asked what exactly is a pepperoni roll.
As I explained, I realized for the first time that pepperoni rolls are a regional food, hardly known outside eastern Ohio and West Virginia.
The History of the Pepperoni Roll
In the early 1900’s, many immigrants, including Italians, flooded into West Virginia to work in the coal mines. According to A Culinary History of West Virginia, a baker named Joseph Argrio noticed that the miners often wrapped bread around meat for their meals in the mine. He baked pepperoni into the bread, making a handy, no mess sandwich with a long shelf life.
Mr. Argrio’s bakery was in Fairmont, West Virginia. My mother’s family lived near there and in neighboring Harrison County. I don’t know when my grandmother began baking pepperoni rolls, but my mom always has and now I do.
Pepperoni rolls are the most convenient lunch I know. They don’t require refrigeration. They last at least 5 days on the counter, and then I put them in the fridge only to preserve the bread. My oldest takes a couple with him on the band bus when he has an away football game. They’re perfect for a meal or snack on a hike.
When I created my fictional family for my cozy mystery series, Rae Riley Mysteries, I had to make the grandparents come from West Virginia. Not only would that give my characters a history common with my own, I could include pepperoni rolls whenever I needed to.
Recipe
1 loaf of frozen dough, such as Rhodes, for a 9×5 pan (If you use homemade bread, use the amount for one loaf pan.)
48 slices of pizza pepperoni or 12-18 slices of deli pepperoni or 12-18 slices of stick pepperoni
(There are some people who prefer stick over slices. I always use small, sliced pizza pepperoni)
Thaw loaf.
Or
Make your preferred kind of bread. Let rise. Knead down. Then follow the steps below.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease or spray 1 cookie sheet.
Cut doubt into 8 roughly equal pieces.
Flatten one piece of dough until it is wide enough to lay 3 pizza pepperoni slices, overlapping.
Roll dough over pepperoni.
Lay 3 more slices.
Roll over dough and seal seams.
Place on cookie sheet. When 8 rolls are made, cover with light cloth and let raise for 2-3 hours.
Bake 10-13 minutes.
Eat when cooled to desired temperature.
Freeze leftovers if desired.
Some people add cheese and other ingredients but the original pepperoni roll was simply pepperoni baked into a roll.
BIO: JPC Allen started her writing career in second grade with an homage to Scooby Doo, and she’s been tracking down mysteries ever since. Her Christmas mystery “A Rose from the Ashes” was the first Rae Riley mystery and her latest Rae Riley novel, A Storm of Doubts released in March 2024. Online, she offers tips and prompts for every kind of writer. Follow her to her next mystery at Facebook, BookBub, and Goodreads.
BLURB: Twenty-year-old Rae Riley’s desire to help people in trouble puts her at odds with her newly-found father, Mal. When she extends that help to her con man uncle and the ex-wife of a family friend, she and Mal clash even more. Then the ex-wife disappears. Rae works to discover what really happened as her uncle makes Rae doubt she’s calling the right Malinowski “Dad”.
This is the first book I’ve read of this cozy mystery series. Three sisters share ownership of a Victorian home and a business called Secondhand Blessings.
Elizabeth, who took care of her aging parents until they died, shuns changes, of which there are plenty in this story.
Recently-divorced Mary paints beautiful ornaments that sell the next day and must be replenished.
Martha, a widow coping with the recent loss of her husband, maintains the store’s books and sells baked goods.
It’s Martha’s baked goods that capture the eye of Martine Fontaine, star of It’s Always a Party with Marti, who decides she must tape her Christmas baking show in the sisters’ home.
From there, chaos ensues. Too many accidents that nearly kill Martine have Martha, an amateur sleuth, trying to discover who is behind them before the star of the show is killed.
I enjoyed this cozy mystery and found myself trying to figure out the culprit along with the sisters. I especially love that the story is set at Christmas. Conflicts with Mary’s children and Martha’s children seem real and enhance the story.
A satisfying read. Recommended for those who enjoy cozy mysteries.
This first book in the series snagged my attention from the beginning! I love when a small-town cast of believable—mostly lovable—characters collide in a cozy mystery. Of course, I tried to figure out the mystery along with characters. 😊
Saundra Bailey, the new children’s librarian in Cadburn, Ohio, loves her new apartment and job, but doesn’t feel safe. A stranger attempts to get into her apartment and later tries to snatch her purse. The danger escalates from there. Who can she trust?
Kai Shane, owner of the Book & Mug, has been in town a few years and still isn’t welcomed by the “royal” family. He and his cousins, Eden and Troy, are on their own mission to find their family who put them with a foster family and never came back.
Saundra captures Kai’s attention right away. He’s concerned about her safety—and the break-in’s at his own building.
The author does a wonderful job of building a cast of believable characters. I was so pulled into the story that I wanted to study the documents myself!
This is not the first book I’ve read by this talented author. Levigne has delivered a well-written cozy mystery that captivated me and kept me turning pages. It’s filled with twists and I couldn’t put it down!
Sandra Merville Hart 